Easing the Patient’s Pharmacy Experience

A pharmacy error few weeks ago reaffirmed our need for better solutions.

A relative of mine suffering from shingles had a five-day prescription filled for acyclovir, five times per day. Feeling pretty ill, she took the prescription home from the pharmacy without double-checking it. But the pharmacy had dispensed just five pills instead of the 25 she had been expecting.

I went back the next day to obtain the remainder of the prescription. At first, it was a mystery. Did the doctor mistakenly tell my relative to take 5 tablets per day, and the pharmacist straightened it out? (And if so, did my relative just overdose by taking three tablets in one day?) Did the doctor write the prescription incorrectly? Did the pharmacist or pharmacy assistant misinterpret the prescription? Or did my relative’s insurance only cover five tablets?

As you can see, we were pretty confused. And adding to my confusion was the fact that I was trying to figure this out in a crowded, understaffed pharmacy, late on a Friday afternoon, with two children in tow who were enjoying running up and down the aisles.

When the pharmacist finally pulled the original paper prescription (after about an hour), she discovered that whoever had filled the prescription the day before had typed in instructions to dispense five—not 25—tablets. (But five tablets five times a day was pretty standard, the pharmacist-detective told me, so the mistake should have been evident.) I asked whether electronic prescribing or prepackaged regimens would help, and she thought they could. “We wouldn’t have trouble reading handwriting, and we could just put our label on it,” she said.

Here’s another benefit. If pharmacists didn’t have to take the time to decipher handwriting, call doctors to clarify prescriptions, and then manually repackage them, they would get sick patients in and out faster. Maybe my relative would have been able to speak to the pharmacist in detail before she felt too weak from waiting. And maybe the mother waiting behind me with her sick son while I took forever to figure out the mistake would have stopped giving me dirty looks. (To be fair, it was a long time!)
And patients obviously need such pharmacist counsel. For a short time, my relative worried that she had overdosed. What a frightening concept!

In the end, my relative received the prescriptions and advice she needed. But not after some frustration and fear.
Should this be the experience patients have with your products? Are there any steps you can take to ease pharmacy dispensing, so patients aren’t hesitant to fill the next prescription?

Daphne Allen
Editor