What Is The Point of Pharmacists (Honest Question)

ddilrat on 03/08/2023 - 17:12

I am not trying to be rude to anyone's profession but I am honestly asking and hope someone can explain the process.

What I don't understand is a pharmacists role in filling a script other than putting your details into the system. You already see a physician who prescribes the medicine, tells you about dosage and side effects, knows what other medications you are taking and also what the new prescription is for.

What's the point of the pharmacist then asking a bunch of the same or similar questions? Why does it take so long to dispense especially when you have been to the pharmacy before. Looks like it all comes straight out of a machine now anyway.

Seems like their only purpose is to keep people in store to buy other crap.

Health & Beauty

Comments

  • cleo2 on 04/08/2023 - 10:23
    +1

    I was diagnosed with coeliac disease 30 odd years ago. I don’t know how many times my chemist has caught a prescription with gluten in it. Due to doctors mistake or change in script. Lately a few scripts have not been available due to industry shortages and they have suggested an alternative and rung the doctor to confirm.

  • John Kimble on 04/08/2023 - 12:37
    +1

    Dunno about now with print outs, but I'm 99% sure previously with hand written prescriptions their main role was deciphering doctor's handwriting…probably took a significant portion of their years of training.

  • LFO on 04/08/2023 - 13:00

    Probably as a double check to re-confirm medication.
    Like at a hospital when, usually a nurse, double checks DOB and name and etc before injecting …

    Unfortunately sometimes they went overboard asking WHY I was buying aspirin … if it was for blood thinning and so on. Totally unnecessary.
    The worst case was a pharmacist hesitating if I could buy or not warts burning liniment … far too strong she insisted … how embarrassing her advice, really.

    Other than the double checking can not see the point of studding as much as they do to just dispense sealed boxes of tested, known, certified, approved medication.

    This said, SOME pharmacists WILL prepare a mixture as prescribe by a doctor. Then the pharmacist is INDISPENSABLE.

  • Drannoying on 04/08/2023 - 13:04
    +4

    There is truth to the fact most of a pharmacist's work is pretty simple, 90% of the time.
    Read the script, check the dose, stick a label on a box, tell you how to take it, easy peasy.
    It's the edge case where you would see a pharmacist's value.

    Example, when you've just been discharged from hospital after a stroke/heart attack/PE/DVT, you've got three A4 pages of medicine and the intern was burnt out because they're understaffed and could only spend 5 minutes explaining everything to you, is when a pharmacist is "useful"; tell you how to take all your tablets/injections/puffers, if there's anything you need to stop, check interactions between meds and any existing conditions the hospital may have missed, liaise with GPs/specialists/pathology.
    Now you could do this all yourself, but you've just had a near death experience, your mind's not in the right spot, you're scared and confused, but the pharmacist is at least giving you clarity in regards to your meds.
    This happens more often than is OK frankly, but it's just the reality of an overstretched health system that's a whole other debate.

    Could an AI do this? One day sure, but if it were me, I'd much rather be talking to a human.
    Does a pharmacist provide value? To a person that only ever gets antibiotics, probably not. To the above case and others like it, I'll leave that for you to decide. (PS they don't get paid for doing all that either, the shop gets paid for the meds only)
    And owners being more concerned about milking every last cent from you rather than focussing on patient outcomes doesn't exactly help. Vitamins, makeup, skin care etc should not be in a pharmacy.

    Think of pharmacists as similar to car/health/home insurance, something you'd hope never to use, but thankful they're there when you do :)

  • [Deactivated] on 04/08/2023 - 15:16

    There's at least 2 phone apps for pharmacies, get one and put your order in from home, go to the pharmacy & pick up your order when they've informed you on the app that your order is ready. No waiting around required.

  • mrvaluepack on 04/08/2023 - 22:51

    In my opinion, nothing because if you go to most asian countries and see a doctor at a clinic, the receptionist will usually dispense the medicine there as well without a pharmacy or pharmacist. And with a bit of googling skill and common sense you can check all the info you need about any type of drug online.

    • drfuzzy on 05/08/2023 - 02:04
      +3

      Same for mechanics, electricians and builders.
      They don't do anything you can't figure out yourself with some googling and youtube.

      • mrvaluepack on 05/08/2023 - 05:45

        You pay them for their physical labour and experience.

    • sal78 on 24/08/2023 - 09:51
      -1

      Glad I don't go to asian country!

  • Sammy Boi on 04/08/2023 - 23:11
    -1

    You are completely brain-dead to write something like this.

    • drfuzzy on 05/08/2023 - 02:02

      A bit unfair, but OPs knuckles are certainly dragging close to the ground.

  • kaleidoscope on 05/08/2023 - 00:20
    +1

    Doctors prescribe drugs. Pharmacists know more about drugs themselves and their side effects and in some instances they can infact combine different drugs to produce a new drug that is suitable for an individual's need. These come in various forms such as creams / ointments to the capsules you take orally. In addition to that it's another set of eyes to verify if you're being given the correct drug and not mistaken.

    Seems like their only purpose is to keep people in store to buy other crap

    Looks like you have bigger problems than what you think

  • Blargman2001 on 05/08/2023 - 02:08
    +1

    Regarding wait times. Walking to the shelf, getting the item, walking back, entering the data, labelling and checking it takes at minimum 2 minutes per item, usually longer if you want to be given the right medication with a label that makes sense. I also need to add making a mistake that causes harm to the patient will lead to a disciplinary hearing that may result in a fine or deregistration by the pharmacy board and in all of the hearings I've heard of I have never seen them accept any kind of excuse for a mistake. So you're expected to do this with 100% accuracy, all of the time. Anyway back to our waiting calculation, all of those elderly people you see in the pharmacy? Most of them are on at least 5-6 medicines, so that's 10-12 minutes per person just to get it ready. If there's two of these people in front of you that's already a 20 minute wait. If the patient wants the medicine explained to them that's another 5-10 minutes on top. Then inventory needs to be managed, Medicare has to be dealt with occasionally, there are constant phone calls from other health professionals wanting information on patients or discharging them to you, plus those people that want to talk to the pharmacist just to ask when you close. There's a whole shop dedicated to this one role, do you think one doctor could do this in their 15 minute consult? GP's are on $200+ per hour, pharmacist at a discount pharmacy are on $34/hr. If pharmacist didn't exist and you paid doctors to do it, your medication would cost four times what it does now and you'd wait four times as long

    • sal78 on 24/08/2023 - 09:55

      Are you doing covid injections? I thought that was a bit too much to add another task.

      I really take my hat off to pharmacists and assistants. You guys are often forgotten compared to doctors and nurses but you also survived covid era. That was absolutely hectic. I'm still burnt out from those few years.

  • hawkshead on 05/08/2023 - 07:29
    +2

    No shade on DR's but they see SOOOO many people every day. And like you and me they make mistakes. Having a 2nd review is what stops you from dying or not getting what you need.

    There's also a bunch of different things pharmacists do as well thats beyond the scope of filling scripts.

    • [Deactivated] on 06/08/2023 - 20:46
      -2

      Sorry, are you saying that doctor is seeing more people than a pharmacist in a day? Have you been to a pharmacy before?

      • hawkshead on 12/08/2023 - 18:07

        2 checks are better than one. Nowhere in the above post have I compared the amount of people a doctor or a pharmacist sees to each other. Perhaps a trip to the optometrist is warranted.

        • [Deactivated] on 12/08/2023 - 18:31
          -2

          Nowhere in the above post have I compared the amount of people a doctor or a pharmacist sees to each other.

          You most certainly did and you you can't understand what you're saying maybe trip somewhere is indeed warranted.

  • Sinnerator on 05/08/2023 - 09:48
    -5

    so they can upsell you on $500 worth of multivitamins and essential oils at point of sale

    • taradavey on 06/08/2023 - 07:54
      +1

      I've never seen a Pharmacist have time to upsell anything.
      Store staff, sure.
      Pharmacist? Definitely not.

  • Bearlion on 05/08/2023 - 10:08

    Real useless professions are accountants and lawyers, start a new thread!

  • Davo1111 on 05/08/2023 - 10:26

    What's the point of accountants if you can just use etax?

    There are some advanced functions they do such as checking allergies

    • plmko on 05/08/2023 - 21:31

      Well the answer is simple for your question. etax was discontinued 8 years ago……so yeah

      • Davo1111 on 06/08/2023 - 20:09

        Lol mytax. But anyway

    • [Deactivated] on 06/08/2023 - 20:48

      I have an allergy on paying tax, can you prescribe be something? Microdosing taxes does not work.

  • Thaal Sinestro on 05/08/2023 - 11:05

    In my experience, some chemists are just "quiet quitters" who know and do the absolute minimum required by their job, but others are passionate about pharmacology and keep up with the newest trials and research. You could soon replace the "quiet quitters" with a machine that scans a QR code and get a mechanical "arm" to grab the appropriate medicate.

    Personally I think pharmachists should be upskilled to prescribe certain medications. Their learning is currently largely wasted since they are mostly doing bureaucratic work which could be handled by someone without a pharmacy degree, and just a month's on the job training.

    • Blargman2001 on 05/08/2023 - 13:33

      Those machines have existed for at least a decade if not longer. They're not widespread because it's still cheaper to hire a person to do it.

  • dmcneice on 05/08/2023 - 13:12

    As someone was a pharmacist for years and is now a doctor, I feel I can give a reasonable POV.

    The main reasons I believe they are vital are:
    -Safety net
    -Avoiding conflict of interest (e.g. doctors prescribing medications because they get a profit) - This one I fully understand and am behind….that being said - it shits me that pharmacists are now able to prescribe AND dispense..yet the conflict of interest doesnt apply to them

    • yolo123456789 on 05/08/2023 - 18:44

      Wouldn't you need prescriber number to prescribe? I don't think pharmacist in Australia have prescriber number?

      • dmcneice on 05/08/2023 - 20:03
        -1

        Many states now are currently in the process of allowing pharmacists to prescribe. The state I am in (QLD), they will be able to prescribe quite a few prescription medications (and dispense them)

        • yolo123456789 on 06/08/2023 - 10:00

          My understanding is certain things that used to be prescription only are now able to supplied by pharmacist without a prescription? I'm just trying to get my head around the prescribing part, like is it just certain things become more accessible or pharmacist become a prescriber?

        • kylarstern on 06/08/2023 - 15:06
          +3

          Pharmacist doctor here too. I am a GP on the Bayside of Qld.
          I think you should do some diligent research/ask an actual pharmacist before making up facts.
          The prescribing thing is a pilot and ONLY in select North Qld pharmacies. Also, 'prescribing quite a few prescription medications' is completely false - the number is limited.

          FYI: My wife is a pharmacist

          • dmcneice on 06/08/2023 - 16:26

            @kylarstern: I apologise, I'm on the border of nsw/qld and there's a nsw state wide one running as well. I got my information from the AMA/RACGP, which was talking about the trial on qld allowing pharmacists to prescribe drugs for 23 conditions. That sounds like quite a few to me.

            • sal78 on 24/08/2023 - 09:59

              @dmcneice: This is mainly to solve the doctors shortage crisis in rural australia. Unless you have a better solution?

    • taradavey on 06/08/2023 - 07:56

      I thought a Pharmacist prescribing medication was waaay into the future.
      Do they get the same kickback from the government for prescribing medication in QLD? Or is it just dispensing?

      • dmcneice on 06/08/2023 - 08:01
        -1

        Trials are running as we speak. I wouldnt say it's way into the future, more like within the next 1-2 years (at least in QLD)

        • taradavey on 07/08/2023 - 09:32

          Interesting. Still probably years behind in NSW.
          Do they get the same kickback from the government for prescribing medication in QLD? Or is it just dispensing?

  • Dack Smith on 05/08/2023 - 14:24
    +10

    Let’s bash the healthcare workers and show our utter ingratitude and ignorance of the subject matter

    The sheer amount of wannabe fake Einsteins around makes me wonder …. how the human gene pool got so polluted so quickly

    It’s the world of tikfok Insta inbred muthafukas

  • Cusack on 05/08/2023 - 14:54

    "…and why does that pharmacist have to be 2.5 feet higher than everyone else? Who the hell is this guy? Clear out everybody I'm working with pills here. I'm taking them from this big bottle and putting them in a little bottle…" - Jerry Seinfeld

  • Aneurism on 05/08/2023 - 15:42

    For the most part they are supposed to act as a 2nd check on the prescriptions (partly from a time before there were cross checks across medical centres, pharmacists could spend a bit more time querying customers to identify potential contraindications or conflicting medications the patient might be taking or might have historically purchased)..

    Rarely they might need to create extemporaneous product where the supply is not supplied wholesale..

    These days it seems they can also do covid injections but are mostly good for complaining about how underpaid compared to the higher level of expected knowledge that comes with the profession

  • vi9ilante on 06/08/2023 - 00:08

    This should have really been posted in r/NoStupidQuestions

  • kachi on 06/08/2023 - 00:15

    I remember going to the pharmacist and them letting me know that the doctor prescribed the wrong (old version) of a vaccination I needed, saying that variant isn't used anymore so gave me the most recent type. Also depending on what it is, they compounded me a prescription

    • [Deactivated] on 06/08/2023 - 18:44

      It's 100% because they did not have old one in stock, not because they somehow cared about you.

      • CurlCurl on 06/08/2023 - 18:50

        It's 100% because they did not have old one in stock, not because they somehow cared about you

        Please tell how you know that 100%. Were you the Pharmacist telling porkies?

        • [Deactivated] on 06/08/2023 - 18:51

          Because they clearly said

          that variant isn't used anymore

          Why would they have in stock something that is not used anymore? Or you think they'd have it hidden in a closet, just in case you show up, and give it to you if you asked nicely?

          • CurlCurl on 06/08/2023 - 18:54

            @[Deactivated]:

            Why would they have in stock something that is not used anymore? Or you think they'd have it hidden in closet and give it to you if you asked nicely?

            Oops. I misread your post.

  • Hahuh on 06/08/2023 - 00:45
    -1

    To question the script my doctor has given me.

  • Roe Jogan on 06/08/2023 - 10:47
    -5

    useless profession, they are glorified pick packers. the drug name and quantity is on the prescription, all they do is bag it. they also like to play doctor when they hand it to you, telling you why you need it and how much to take, something thats already been discussed with the doctor, i assume its the law but its stupid either way.

  • wiselyfoolish on 06/08/2023 - 12:13
    +1

    3 tiered approach to medication safety for the public:

    1. Doctor prescribes medication (writes the order)
    2. Pharmacist dispenses medication (supply the order)
    3. Nurse administers medication (enacts the order)

    Having 3 different people check and recheck ensures patients get the right drug for the right indication etc etc
    Also, it prevents abuse and conflicts of interest e.g. favouring certain drugs for financial kickbacks

    Like anything in healthcare, it's slow and inefficient but worthwhile. Would you prefer your parents or children slowly get the right drugs or get the drugs quickly but not the right ones?

    Healthcare is so thankless and the general public are so entitled they take this for granted. If it isn't about Pharmacist job being questioned, then it's about Doctors "scamming" money from you by charging a surcharge on top of medicare for a standard consultation.

    • OzOzOzOzzzzz on 06/08/2023 - 14:51

      or healthcare professionals like dentist/optometrist charging them out of pocket as they choose a cheap pea-paying insurance policy

    • ddilrat on 06/08/2023 - 16:44

      It's a good system but I'm sure there is plenty for which this level of check is overkill

  • kylarstern on 06/08/2023 - 15:09
    +1

    'I am not trying to be rude to anyone's profession' and finishing up with 'Seems like their only purpose is to keep people in store to buy other crap.'

    Classy. You're doing a great job trying not to be rude to anyone.

    • ddilrat on 06/08/2023 - 16:42

      Thanks champ. Is it the word crap that you didnt like. Will use "stuff" next time

      • drfuzzy on 06/08/2023 - 22:03

        I recommend you check out the cheap perfurmes.
        It might help cover the smell.

  • Willy Beamish on 06/08/2023 - 19:16

    More like designated reader of instructions than pharmacist, probly just there for liability sake since they're the ones selling you the drugs

  • dfg555 on 06/08/2023 - 20:23

    ive always viewed pharmacists as budget doctors

    • thetravellermate on 07/08/2023 - 06:51

      You could not be more far from the truth.

      Doctors have years of medical education and training, equipping them with in-depth knowledge of human anatomy, physiology, and various medical conditions. They possess the expertise required to diagnose complex health issues accurately. Pharmacists, though highly knowledgeable about medications, do not have the same level of training and may not possess the breadth of knowledge to diagnose or treat underlying medical conditions.

  • random12 on 06/08/2023 - 21:51
    -1

    Pharmacists need to learn 'risk based approach'. You don't check something solely for the purpose of checking it. You look at the potential impact of an error and you adjust the amount of checking accordingly. [ Analogy: If something makes a 1 cent difference, it doesn't need to be checked. If something makes a $1 million difference, then you can spend 10min checking ].

    I have the same scripts that I have got every month for years. There is no need to do any checks on me. I will notice that the packet is different if they give me something that is not correct. But I still have to wait (sometimes fairly long). Very annoying.

    To the people that say they are a check on the doctor not giving medicines that have problems when mixed - all of this should be automated. Whenever a doctor attempts to prescribe stuff that cannot be taken together, an error should pop up on the screen. [ I realise some scripts are written on paper, so maybe get rid of them and have all scripts written and tracked electronically ].

    • ddilrat on 07/08/2023 - 11:41

      My doctor gets these pop ups already and has shown them to me

    • Blargman2001 on 08/08/2023 - 01:07

      Some stores will have an internal policy to make you wait when they could finish your script in a few minutes so that you buy 'crap' while you're waiting.

  • drfuzzy on 06/08/2023 - 21:59

    Pharmacies should be staffed by Newstart recipients, provided they pass a basic numeracy test.
    This would decrease cost, improve efficiency and give welfare recipients skills doing something meaningless like dispensing pills.
    Centrelink should expand to be named "Centrelink Warehouse" and be a one-stop shop for welfare payments, multivitamins, and prescription medication.

    • iridiumstem on 07/08/2023 - 10:02
      +1

      As someone who worked in a charity where there were few people volunteered to fulfill their requirements, many of them required far more supports than what people expects on an "easy job". If you push people to work like what you are suggesting, it would be management's nightmare and probably would make things far worse (since you need to have them trained, have constant supervision, etc etc).

  • capslock janitor on 06/08/2023 - 22:15
    +1

    After reading through some.
    I have a bit mroe respect for pharmacists

    Usually I feel like whatever a doctor says, is somewhat superior to what the pharmacist has to say afterwards that I almost discount them
    ..guess it comes with good and bad still

  • BobLim on 07/08/2023 - 18:17

    When I'm the only one there, I've had a regular prescription filled in under 1 minute on multiple occasions. Presumably it's literally looking up the script number, printing the label, getting the box off the shelf, maybe checking the expiry date or scanning the batch etc, then handing it over.

    Proof that other customers are the problem I'd suggest?

  • Will Mcdonald on 15/08/2023 - 12:09
    +1

    So maybe we remove the pharmacist degree completely and put pharmacology as a sub specialist of the doctorate of medicine. Than we have more qualified people dispensing medication with actual relevant medical knowledge?

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