Do you ever get irritated at having to wait in line at the prescription counter in your Kentucky pharmacy? Here is a little information about the job of a pharmacist that may cause you to be a bit more patient in that line:
- Many pharmacists work 12-hour shifts, sometimes back to back.
- It is not unusual for a pharmacist to be expected to fill 30 prescriptions an hour, or one every two minutes; this two minutes includes dispensing the drug, checking for drug interactions, and counseling the patient.
- The demand for prescription drugs has grown—from more than two billion in 1994 to more than three billion in 2012.
- The number of skilled pharmacists has not kept pace with the demand for prescription drugs.
- Even with the high number of prescriptions that they are expected to fill during each shift, pharmacists say that much of their time is spent dealing with insurance eligibility and managed care issues.
To what do pharmacists attribute medication errors? A study by the Massachusetts Board of Registration in Pharmacy found that pharmacists most often cited the following reasons for errors:
- too many phone calls (62 percent);
- work overload, or an unusually busy day (59 percent);
- too many customers (53 percent);
- inability to concentrate (41 percent);
- lack of another person to double check (41 percent);
- not enough staff (32 percent);
- sound alike/look alike (SALA or LASA) drugs (29 percent);
- insufficient time to advise customers (29 percent);
- illegible writing on prescriptions (26 percent); and
- misinterpreted prescriptions (24 percent).
When a Kentucky medication error harms you or someone you love, get in touch with the Louisville medication error lawyers at Gray and White Law. Call us at 502-210-8942 or toll-free at 888-450-4456 and set up a FREE, no-obligation consultation.
