Counting Pills

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doubletwenty

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Serious question, but how do you pharmacists fill quickly?
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I actually count by 3's instead of 5's, I think it's faster but get made fun of for it.
 
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They try to transform you into a machine in retail
 
doubletwenty said:
Serious question, but how do you pharmacists fill quickly?
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Practice. I was a mediocre PIC my second year as a pharmacist at an understaffed CVS. My techs knew I wasn't great, but my attitude/personality made working with me okay (I think). One day we had pharmacist overlap so I had a chance to fill prescriptions while someone else verified. My techs were blown away and couldn't keep up with me. I told them that I was a crappy pharmacist because I had only been doing it for ~18 months, but I had been a tech for over a decade, so I was pretty good at it.


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we have a pill counter, kirby. certain capsules don't count correctly, but we all let it slide. same thing with manual counting. if we miss a few pills, its not the end of the world. they always come back and the insurance will pay.
 
VeeSee said:
They try to transform you into a machine in retail
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I definitely can relate to that.....

zelman said:
Practice. I was a mediocre PIC my second year as a pharmacist at an understaffed CVS. My techs knew I wasn't great, but my attitude/personality made working with me okay (I think). One day we had pharmacist overlap so I had a chance to fill prescriptions while someone else verified. My techs were blown away and couldn't keep up with me. I told them that I was a crappy pharmacist because I had only been doing it for ~18 months, but I had been a tech for over a decade, so I was pretty good at it.


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I'll take your word for it haha. I still don't know how I'll manage to manually fill 360 pills quickly though.
 
If you have a script for 90 pills and you have an unopened bottle of 100 on the shelf along with an opened bottle, just take 10 out of the new bottle and dump them into the bottle that's already opened. Not proper procedure but **** it. I'd only do this if you scan all the bottles to make sure they are correct first though.
 
ldiot said:
If you have a script for 90 pills and you have an unopened bottle of 100 on the shelf along with an opened bottle, just take 10 out of the new bottle and dump them into the bottle that's already opened. Not proper procedure but **** it. I'd only do this if you scan all the bottles to make sure they are correct first though.
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Misbranding and adulteration of medication. Plus it messes with recalls. Just leave that bottle of 10 on the shelf

I'm alone a lot of the time (we do 350:week in the winter) so I count a lot. I'm a proponent of leaving stuff in sealed stock bottles. Saves time and I like it
 
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npage148 said:
Misbranding and adulteration of medication. Plus it messes with recalls. Just leave that bottle of 10 on the shelf

I'm alone a lot of the time (we do 350:week in the winter) so I count a lot. I'm a proponent of leaving stuff in sealed stock bottles. Saves time and I like it
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Apparently at CVS you can't label the stock bottle anymore. Could have just been my state/district. Not sure why, the new place I started working at doesn't have some of those weird policies. Glad I quit.
 
npage148 said:
Misbranding and adulteration of medication. Plus it messes with recalls. Just leave that bottle of 10 on the shelf

I'm alone a lot of the time (we do 350:week in the winter) so I count a lot. I'm a proponent of leaving stuff in sealed stock bottles. Saves time and I like it
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Ok maybe I am just too tired to think straight but how is that misbranding or adulteration?

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owlegrad said:
Ok maybe I am just too tired to think straight but how is that misbranding or adulteration?

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Potentially mixing lot numbers or expiration dates? That's all I can think of.
 
Because alot of us were techs/interns for quite a while before becoming a pharmacist...
 
ldiot said:
Potentially mixing lot numbers or expiration dates? That's all I can think of.
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Do either of those things count as misbranding or adulteration? Because this happens every time you use more than one stock bottle to fill a prescription...

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owlegrad said:
Do either of those things count as misbranding or adulteration? Because this happens every time you use more than one stock bottle to fill a prescription...

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Click to expand...

Though it's probably against every company procedure and isn't considered good practice I'm not sure that it's considered misbranding/adulteration. The drug still meets standards of quality and purity and is unaltered. Like you said drugs are mixed in patient vials and even drugs that are returned to stock in vials don't contain a lot number on the label (though technically if a drug was recalled you would get rid of the return to stock vials just to be safe; whereas you wouldn't be able to identify a "mixed" bottle in the first place).
 
Misbranding via putting it into a bottle with a different lot/exp date. Med with unknown exp date/recalled on shelf potentially being sold

adulteration, Misbranded medications mixed with "good" medication

If it wasn't illegal what's to stop me from just dumping exp medication into a newer stock bottle

Return to stock vials may have more than 1 lot but they are short dated and handled differently in every place I've been to account for this issue
 
npage148 said:
Misbranding via putting it into a bottle with a different lot/exp date. Med with unknown exp date/recalled on shelf potentially being sold

adulteration, Misbranded medications mixed with "good" medication

If it wasn't illegal what's to stop me from just dumping exp medication into a newer stock bottle

Return to stock vials may have more than 1 lot but they are short dated and handled differently in every place I've been to account for this issue
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So you have two bottles with multiple lots in them, a vial and a stock bottle. Which one is misbranded?
 
wagrxm2000 said:
So you have two bottles with multiple lots in them, a vial and a stock bottle. Which one is misbranded?
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The stock bottle for sure given the different lot/exp than what is printed on the bottle. The vial probably not since you don't print that information on the vial.

My favorite misbranding case: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_v._Ninety-Five_Barrels_Alleged_Apple_Cider_Vinegar, simply because I like the mental picture of 95 barrels being wheeled into court and taking the stand (I know that's not how it works, I don't care).
 
How many tab you guys count per scoop? I see most people do 5, some people do 3 and 2. Which way is faster?
 
nasacort24hr said:
I guess my question should be which one is easier (not to loss count/miss count) and yet fast.
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Everyone thinks their way is best, but seriously there is a reason counting by 5 is by far the most common method. Even better than counting by 5 is counting with a Kirby though and that is what I recommend. 😉
 
Some district managers dislike getting complaints from customers about how they received a stock bottle with label on it. the customer choked on desiccant left inside and blame pharmacy for not removing it. Also some stock bottles do not have a safety cap (phenobarbital qualitest for example). it's also embarrassing to some people to have their stock bottle of cialis or valacyclovir and would rather it be in a vial.
 
nasacort24hr said:
How many tab you guys count per scoop? I see most people do 5, some people do 3 and 2. Which way is faster?
Click to expand...
I used to count by 5's but switched to 3's because it is less error prone and just as fast.
 
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