PHarmacy Duties

[TheHillCrew]

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How would you break down pharmacy duties (retail) percentage wise. I have never worked in a pharmacy but to me it looks like the techs deal with the customers most of the time. I see the pharmacist on the computer, looking at paperwork, or on the phone. Could you break down your duties by using percentages?

For example:
25%- on the phone
20%- counseling
25%- this
10%- that
20%- and the other thing

 

[Caverject]

sounds about right for retail...

 

[Hels2007]

It differs too much from place to place. Even within the same retail chain - when I floated for Walgreen's between two districts, there would be stores where the four phones always all ring, and there are stores doing the same volume that hardly ever have phone ringing. And within community pharmacy depending on what the store makes the most money on and what draws people in, that will determine how much time is spent doing what. And depends on your position. A friend of mine works for a small privately owned pharmacy and her main job is diabetes education and MTM, she talks to patients most of the time and hardly does any verification/filling. Even excluding special situations like these, there are different policies from store to store and state to state and different staffing solutions - a pharmacist might be the primary person to ring patients up, with mandatory counseling. And in the hospital, your duties are very different if you work in the IV room vs. consultant pharmacist on a rounding team. And there are all the other settings.

As I said, it's just too varied. Any estimate I would try to make would only be true for a specific pharmacy.

 

[Old Timer]

I would say Hels2007 is right on. If i had to say what most of your time is spent doing is called Q.A. You are the final check to see the patient gets:

• The correct medication
• The correct dosage
• The correct directions
• There are no interactions or allergies.

Most of this is behinds the scenes. It's not like there is a major drug interaction with 1 out of 4 prescriptions. Most computer systems will kick out the obvious interactions. The art of being a pharmacist is to see the smaller but critical things that really come from knowing your patients and their medication history.....

 

[dee783]

It differs too much from place to place. Even within the same retail chain - when I floated for Walgreen's between two districts, there would be stores where the four phones always all ring, and there are stores doing the same volume that hardly ever have phone ringing. And within community pharmacy depending on what the store makes the most money on and what draws people in, that will determine how much time is spent doing what. And depends on your position. A friend of mine works for a small privately owned pharmacy and her main job is diabetes education and MTM, she talks to patients most of the time and hardly does any verification/filling. Even excluding special situations like these, there are different policies from store to store and state to state and different staffing solutions - a pharmacist might be the primary person to ring patients up, with mandatory counseling. And in the hospital, your duties are very different if you work in the IV room vs. consultant pharmacist on a rounding team. And there are all the other settings.

As I said, it's just too varied. Any estimate I would try to make would only be true for a specific pharmacy.

Just curious, what's MTM?

 

[Rumplestiltazepam]

Just curious, what's MTM?

I did not know what MTM was either until doing a quick search on good ole Google, doing a search on your own can often answer a question more swiftly than here, always good to give it a try.

MTM= medication therapy management

 

[Hels2007]

Just curious, what's MTM?

Medication Therapy Management. The next big thing in pharmacy (hopefully, won't turn out a dud, like some previous attempts to get pharmacists recognized as providers and paid for their intellectual contribution). Includes things like brown bags (patient brings a brown bag filled with all the meds they are taking, regardless whether they are from you, another pharmacy, samples, OTCs, and you go over them, to see why they are taking them, are they taking them correctly, and whether they should even be taking them.