Current Events > I don't see why we need pharmacists

(+) Yeah! (+)

You go in, show them a prescription, they give you the pills. Any goofus could do it.

Why aren't we giving this job to high school students? Or just eliminate pharmacies altogether
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I kind of agree, but giving the job to high school students would be a god damned nightmare.
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Sure medical errors are the third leading cause of death in America but lets make it worse
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I've never been clear on what pharmacists actually do, tbh. Surely it's more complicated than it appears.
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They know more about drugs than doctors
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Sure medical errors are the third leading cause of death in America but lets make it worse

But I mean is thirty years of college going to make you less likely to read a balance wrong?
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It's a safety critical job - errors in medicine type or dosage instructions may do permanent damage or even kill people. They have to know medicine inside out.

ThePrinceFish posted...

Sure medical errors are the third leading cause of death in America but lets make it worse

So what you're saying is that it's already useless
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ArchiePeck posted...

It's a safety critical job - errors in medicine type or dosage instructions may do permanent damage or even kill people. They have to know medicine inside out.

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They have to remember a LOT of shit. Plus, they work long, thankless hours. Some of those places have 13-14 hour shifts with no lunch break. So, yeah, I don't begrudge them making their money.

literal_garbage posted...

ThePrinceFish posted...

Sure medical errors are the third leading cause of death in America but lets make it worse

So what you're saying is that it's already useless

Pretty much. We might as well also staff ERs and trauma centers with high school students too because we suck at saving lives and if we're going to kill people we might as well do it cheaper.
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Skye Reynolds posted...

They have to remember a LOT of shit. Plus, they work long, thankless hours. Some of those places have 13-14 hour shifts with no lunch break. So, yeah, I don't begrudge them making their money.

As a pharmacy tech, I can say my pharmacists' do quite a bit of work.
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@LanHikari10
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I just want to know what they have to do that takes 15-25 minutes to do before handing me my prescription.
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Did no one check TC's name or what
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ArchiePeck posted...

It's a safety critical job - errors in medicine type or dosage instructions may do permanent damage or even kill people. They have to know medicine inside out.

You know who else knows medicine?

Google
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You need to be able to answer detailed questions about hundreds of drugs with crazy names, maintain strict federal standards, work with medical offices, manage your staff, manage your inventory, recognize and report malpractice and substance abuse red flags, and so forth.
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Did no one check TC's name or what

We know it's a joke topic but I really would like to know more about ehat pharmacists do.
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literal_garbage posted...

ArchiePeck posted...

It's a safety critical job - errors in medicine type or dosage instructions may do permanent damage or even kill people. They have to know medicine inside out.

You know who else knows medicine?

Google

CapnMuffin posted...

You need to be able to answer detailed questions about hundreds of drugs with crazy names, maintain strict federal standards, work with medical offices, manage your staff, manage your inventory, recognize and report malpractice and substance abuse red flags, and so forth.

So you need to know how to use google, send emails, and not break the law

Sowzerd
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smoliske posted...

literal_garbage posted...

ArchiePeck posted...

It's a safety critical job - errors in medicine type or dosage instructions may do permanent damage or even kill people. They have to know medicine inside out.

You know who else knows medicine?

Google

Oh shit he has memes
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smoliske posted...

literal_garbage posted...

ArchiePeck posted...

It's a safety critical job - errors in medicine type or dosage instructions may do permanent damage or even kill people. They have to know medicine inside out.

You know who else knows medicine?

Google

ffs nearly spit out my coffee
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Southernfatman posted...

I just want to know what they have to do that takes 15-25 minutes to do before handing me my prescription.

Inputting insurance information if you're new, running it through, ensuring insurance paid for the claim, ensure right drug, right strength, right manufacturer, count, double count if controlled, package, see if it's new, provide information if new, check pricing and how the stock of medicine is doing, just to name a few.

And if you come in with a handwritten prescription and want it filled that all needs to be done. If it's a refill call it in with the prescription number a few days ahead of time. If it's new drop it off first and run errands.
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literal_garbage posted...

Seems about right.
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LanHikari10 posted...

Southernfatman posted...

I just want to know what they have to do that takes 15-25 minutes to do before handing me my prescription.

Inputting insurance information if you're new, running it through, ensuring insurance paid for the claim, ensure right drug, right strength, right manufacturer, count, double count if controlled, package, see if it's new, provide information if new, check pricing and how the stock of medicine is doing, just to name a few.

and dropping everything we're doing to help everyone showing up to pickup their own medications (often late) and people calling us when they could use the app or website or automated phone system. all of which takes extra time to stop the fill process of your prescription

smoliske posted...

LanHikari10 posted...

Southernfatman posted...

I just want to know what they have to do that takes 15-25 minutes to do before handing me my prescription.

Inputting insurance information if you're new, running it through, ensuring insurance paid for the claim, ensure right drug, right strength, right manufacturer, count, double count if controlled, package, see if it's new, provide information if new, check pricing and how the stock of medicine is doing, just to name a few.

and dropping everything we're doing to help everyone showing up to pickup their own medications (often late) and people calling us when they could use the app or website or automated phone system. all of which takes extra time to stop the fill process of your prescription

Interesting. And also I want to say I was seriously wondering about that and not being a smart aleck.
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smoliske posted...

LanHikari10 posted...

Southernfatman posted...

I just want to know what they have to do that takes 15-25 minutes to do before handing me my prescription.

Inputting insurance information if you're new, running it through, ensuring insurance paid for the claim, ensure right drug, right strength, right manufacturer, count, double count if controlled, package, see if it's new, provide information if new, check pricing and how the stock of medicine is doing, just to name a few.

and dropping everything we're doing to help everyone showing up to pickup their own medications (often late) and people calling us when they could use the app or website or automated phone system. all of which takes extra time to stop the fill process of your prescription

Indeed.

And I'm not saying these things to be mean to anyone, like I said in another topic I just want people to understand some of what we do at a basic level so they don't think we're just twiddling our thumbs or something. And this is all assuming there are no insurance rejects or issues have to call the doctor on.
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LanHikari10 posted...

Southernfatman posted...

I just want to know what they have to do that takes 15-25 minutes to do before handing me my prescription.

Inputting insurance information if you're new, running it through, ensuring insurance paid for the claim, ensure right drug, right strength, right manufacturer, count, double count if controlled, package, see if it's new, provide information if new, check pricing and how the stock of medicine is doing, just to name a few.

And if you come in with a handwritten prescription and want it filled that all needs to be done. If it's a refill call it in with the prescription number a few days ahead of time. If it's new drop it off first and run errands.

It takes you 35 minutes to use the cash register?
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What's with tc? Why is he trying so hard to troll?
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literal_garbage posted...

LanHikari10 posted...

Southernfatman posted...

I just want to know what they have to do that takes 15-25 minutes to do before handing me my prescription.

Inputting insurance information if you're new, running it through, ensuring insurance paid for the claim, ensure right drug, right strength, right manufacturer, count, double count if controlled, package, see if it's new, provide information if new, check pricing and how the stock of medicine is doing, just to name a few.

And if you come in with a handwritten prescription and want it filled that all needs to be done. If it's a refill call it in with the prescription number a few days ahead of time. If it's new drop it off first and run errands.

It takes you 35 minutes to use the cash register?

it takes the old lady in front of you 35 minutes to write a check for $10 and go through and read every single prescription bottle that's she's picking up, then complain that the text is too small so she has to dig through her purse to find her reading glasses, then she forgets she's wearing her driving glasses so she still can't read the label, so she gets a third pair of glasses out that counters the other two so she can finally read the label despite the pharmacy tech telling her the names of the medications she's picking up
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$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$
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a better question is why do they let an unstable loser jackass like lanhikari into a pharmacy at all. i would not want to visit that shit pharmacy

Bump. How'd I miss this?

As a hospital pharmacist, I manage patients in an acute setting. All those meds that are taken by inpatients must have passed through the eyes of a pharmacist at some point. Just the other day, I saw an order from some clown medical student who entered an order for 40 mEq potassium in 500 mL NS to be given "as directed." Patient only had a peripheral line so I casually rolled my eyes and changed the duration from as directed to "over 4 hours."

I've caught a ****ton of medical errors from ordering providers - I anticipate that some of them may not know run time/duration of certain IV meds and **** it up expecting that a pharmacist will correct it.
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Baited on a literal_garbage topic
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Super Saiyan 3 Goku posted...

Bump. How'd I miss this?

As a hospital pharmacist, I manage patients in an acute setting. All those meds that are taken by inpatients must have passed through the eyes of a pharmacist at some point. Just the other day, I saw an order from some clown medical student who entered an order for 40 mEq potassium in 500 mL NS to be given "as directed." Patient only had a peripheral line so I casually rolled my eyes and changed the duration from as directed to "over 4 hours."

I've caught a ****ton of medical errors from ordering providers - I anticipate that some of them may not know run time/duration of certain IV meds and **** it up expecting that a pharmacist will correct it.

look at how high and mighty this egotistical jackass is acting. more proof for tc's point

looks like this shut everyone the fuck up lmfao

There's so much incorrect information and assumptions in this topic. I work in a long term care pharmacy, and know the pharmacists very well. Trust me, if it weren't for them there would be a LOT of dosing errors.
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Super Saiyan 3 Goku posted...

Bump. How'd I miss this?

As a hospital pharmacist, I manage patients in an acute setting. All those meds that are taken by inpatients must have passed through the eyes of a pharmacist at some point. Just the other day, I saw an order from some clown medical student who entered an order for 40 mEq potassium in 500 mL NS to be given "as directed." Patient only had a peripheral line so I casually rolled my eyes and changed the duration from as directed to "over 4 hours."

I've caught a ****ton of medical errors from ordering providers - I anticipate that some of them may not know run time/duration of certain IV meds and **** it up expecting that a pharmacist will correct it.

Also this, IV meds especially require major attention to detail when compounding.
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pres_madagascar posted...

Super Saiyan 3 Goku posted...

Bump. How'd I miss this?

As a hospital pharmacist, I manage patients in an acute setting. All those meds that are taken by inpatients must have passed through the eyes of a pharmacist at some point. Just the other day, I saw an order from some clown medical student who entered an order for 40 mEq potassium in 500 mL NS to be given "as directed." Patient only had a peripheral line so I casually rolled my eyes and changed the duration from as directed to "over 4 hours."

I've caught a ****ton of medical errors from ordering providers - I anticipate that some of them may not know run time/duration of certain IV meds and **** it up expecting that a pharmacist will correct it.

Also this, IV meds especially require major attention to detail when compounding.

does that require the person to be a huge egotistical jackass or is it just this goku guy?

literal_garbage posted...

CapnMuffin posted...

You need to be able to answer detailed questions about hundreds of drugs with crazy names, maintain strict federal standards, work with medical offices, manage your staff, manage your inventory, recognize and report malpractice and substance abuse red flags, and so forth.

So you need to know how to use google, send emails, and not break the law

Sowzerd

You are so absolutly right. I'd like to be the first customer when you start your own pharmacy!!
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Looked gf posted...

Baited on a literal_garbage topic

Smh
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My work is the largest distributor of narcotics in the entire state. We distribute more narcotic medications than the next 5 combined. The dea is at my job monthly making sure shit is on the level.
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Their entire job can be done with an app that already exists called Epocrates. They are pretty much useless. They juts like to think they're important by catching errors that any tech could catch.
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edededdy posted...

pres_madagascar posted...

Super Saiyan 3 Goku posted...

Bump. How'd I miss this?

As a hospital pharmacist, I manage patients in an acute setting. All those meds that are taken by inpatients must have passed through the eyes of a pharmacist at some point. Just the other day, I saw an order from some clown medical student who entered an order for 40 mEq potassium in 500 mL NS to be given "as directed." Patient only had a peripheral line so I casually rolled my eyes and changed the duration from as directed to "over 4 hours."

I've caught a ****ton of medical errors from ordering providers - I anticipate that some of them may not know run time/duration of certain IV meds and **** it up expecting that a pharmacist will correct it.

Also this, IV meds especially require major attention to detail when compounding.

does that require the person to be a huge egotistical jackass or is it just this goku guy?

Who fucked you in the ass? You're awfully butthurt.
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marked lmfao

DanHarenChamp posted...

Their entire job can be done with an app that already exists called Epocrates. They are pretty much useless. They juts like to think they're important by catching errors that any tech could catch.

From many years experience:

No.

Tech's make most of the errors, for fucks sake.
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Yeah, they'll be automated soon enough. Get a real degree
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edededdy posted...

marked lmfao

Congrats?
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lilORANG posted...

Yeah, they'll be automated soon enough. Get a real degree

Pharmacists won't be automated unless the tech's are as well, and the order entry, and the adjudication, and intake, and triage.

When your place is processing 3,000+ scripts a day, errors happen a lot.
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Because capitalism.
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