I Have a Dream...

[pharmdch]

that one day, state pharmacy laws will be abolished and the practice of pharmacy will be standardized across the nation.

that one day, chicken scratch prescriptions will be an embarrassing relic of the past.

that one day, there will be a universal electronic Rx format that all prescribers are required to utilize.


It never fails to amaze me how inefficient the whole prescribing/filling process is. Imagine how much more productive you could be, if all prescriptions were electronic and formatted in exactly the same manner. No more looking all over the place for the information you need. No more misinterpretations of illegible handwriting, or time wasted clarifying handwritten prescriptions.

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[PharmDstudent]

that one day, state pharmacy laws will be abolished and the practice of pharmacy will be standardized across the nation.

that one day, chicken scratch prescriptions will be an embarrassing relic of the past.

that one day, there will be a universal electronic Rx format that all prescribers are required to utilize.


It never fails to amaze me how inefficient the whole prescribing/filling process is. Imagine how much more productive you could be, if all prescriptions were electronic and formatted in exactly the same manner. No more looking all over the place for the information you need. No more misinterpretations of illegible handwriting, or time wasted clarifying handwritten prescriptions.

I have a dream...
that one day, doctors won't have to write sloppy prescriptions because they'll just fill the medications in their offices , and I won't have a job thumbdown!

 

[sdn1977]

Dreams are just that - dreams!

There are reasons some live in ME, CA, LA.......even TX (altho....who knows there).

Pharmacy is very, very territorial as well one of the most regulated professions. It keeps politicians occupied & off the more important topics....I could name a few....

Dream on!

 

[lord999]

I'm working hard on items 2 and 3, trust me! My name is actually on the vocab system for RxNorm (the proposed universal drug dictionary). I hope that someday, all these problems will go away so I can do better things like fish.

that one day, state pharmacy laws will be abolished and the practice of pharmacy will be standardized across the nation.

that one day, chicken scratch prescriptions will be an embarrassing relic of the past.

that one day, there will be a universal electronic Rx format that all prescribers are required to utilize.


It never fails to amaze me how inefficient the whole prescribing/filling process is. Imagine how much more productive you could be, if all prescriptions were electronic and formatted in exactly the same manner. No more looking all over the place for the information you need. No more misinterpretations of illegible handwriting, or time wasted clarifying handwritten prescriptions.

 

[MountainPharmD]

I am all for the national license. What a joke and a total scam license reciprocity is. $185 to the board, $300 to NABP, $175 to take MPJE, $250 for the actal license...a rip off. To boot it took 10 weeks from start to finish to get a license. Sad all that for only one state.

 

[Aznfarmerboi]

Haha, if you think chicken scratch is bad nowadays, you should take a look at the old prescriptions. I can barely make out 99 percent of it. However, I agree with pharmD student. This is part of our job, and this is simply what we do. After all, not all prescriptions are from a doctors office (emergency medicine, surgery, etc). Furthermore,

I sometimes think there are enough errors coming from typed, faxed, computerized prescriptions to make it almost as bad as illegible handwriting. For example, zeros are a big part. Another thing is medical assistants, nurses, receptionists, etc putting in prescriptions after taking verbal orders from doctors, or looking at doctor charts (robots/computers are only as good as the human handling them). In fact, I think doctors not putting in prescriptions themselves are the bigger problems. How many times do you have to talk to a receptionist who has no clue what the medication is.

 

[PharmDstudent]

Reading prescriptions is an art. Every person who enters in a prescription has to be able to read the sig codes, drug abbreviations, and quantities. Sometimes this requires clarification, but that can be done too.
The moment pharmacy becomes automatic is the moment when retail pharmacy jobs end. Why pay a pharmacist $100,000/year when a computerized prescription vending machine could do the work for pennies a day? I know computerized machines cost money, however it would only take a few years to pay for the million dollar investment. Like the self check out lines at a grocery store, computers could do it all. However, I doubt anyone in pharmacy wants that to happen.

 

[Aznfarmerboi]

Automized prescriptions will never lead to the end of a pharmacist job. For one thing, companies cant replace retail pharmacist because BY LAW, the prescription has to be filled out by a pharmacist. The robot is just automated help, and nothing different from pharmacy technicians/assistants. Second of all, we are paid 100k for our cognitive skills, not our reading skills. Each patient is unique, and you have to apply each prescription to that person itself (example is an alcoholic, underage infant/kid taking antihistamines, etc). Stuff that you will learn is necessary as you progress in your pharmacy education.

 

[PharmDstudent]

Automized prescriptions will never lead to the end of a pharmacist job. For one thing, companies cant replace retail pharmacist because BY LAW, the prescription has to be filled out by a pharmacist. The robot is just automated help, and nothing different from pharmacy technicians/assistants. Second of all, we are paid 100k for our cognitive skills, not our reading skills. Each patient is unique, and you have to apply each prescription to that person itself (example is an alcoholic, underage infant/kid taking antihistamines, etc). Stuff that you will learn is necessary as you progress in your pharmacy education.

Like sdn1977 said, we need to keep the politicians busy!

We just shouldn't be pitting ourselves against doctors. I already know of an urgent care center that fills and refills prescriptions without a pharmacist.