I feel that pharmacists do not stress the
importance of filling all of a customer's medications at a single pharmacy or at within
the same pharmaceutical chain nearly enough. The importance is not my attempt to increase our
overall script count, but customers benefit from filling all their medications
with the same pharmacy.
With all the different incentives at different
pharmacies such as Walmart’s $4 generic list and Rite Aid’s fifteen-minute
guarantee, a handful of customers spread their prescriptions all over the
place. Just the other day I sold two prescriptions to a customer and she asked
us to transfer her remaining three prescriptions to a cheaper pharmacy. I am
glad she found a cheaper pharmacy especially in these rough economic times, but
she is also doing herself a disservice.
When a customer fills all of their medications
at a single pharmacy that customer’s profile reflects all current and past
prescriptions. At a single pharmacy the pharmacist can keep tabs on the
customer and more importantly have his or her prescription history readily
available. With the prescription history the pharmacist checks any new
prescriptions against current medications for any sort of drug interaction.
Drug interactions may go unnoticed if the customer fills at different
pharmacies especially if the customer also visits more than one doctor.
Pharmacy staff also asks about any sort of
allergies to any medications for a reason. Allergies are sometimes over looked
by some doctors or in some instances, such as a visit to the emergency room,
the customer may not remember which drugs he or she is allergic to in the heat
of the moment. In these cases the doctors and customer, aware or not, rely on
the pharmacist as the last line of defense before the customer receives a
potentially life-threatening medication.
My pharmacist has made plenty of calls to doctors’
offices to verify prescriptions and request a change in medication due to
interaction. Without all the available information I would hate to imagine what
may happen.
