Rx and the Holidays

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usi

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Does anybody see a fluctuation in the number or kinds of prescriptions during the holidays?
Is any medicine prescribed more during this time than during the rest of the year? Just curious...
 
usi said:
Does anybody see a fluctuation in the number or kinds of prescriptions during the holidays?
Is any medicine prescribed more during this time than during the rest of the year? Just curious...

Numbers tend to increase before and after a holiday -- before because people are trying to get their prescriptions filled before the pharmacy closes or reduces hours for the holiday and after because many people "forgot" to fill their scripts. I typed "forgot" the way I did, because it'd always seem like people would come by or call saying, "I wanted to come by here yesterday (day of holiday), but you guys were closed."

I can remember Labor Day distinctly when I worked in retail. The store I was at filled roughly 300/day, but the day after Labor Day, that amount increased to ~500/day.

Even though I work at a hospital inpatient pharmacy now, yesterday on Christmas we received many calls from the "outside" asking if they could get their insulin or blood pressure meds from us. Our answer was always no, since the inpatient pharmacy doesn't have a license to dispense to anyone but hospital patients.

As far as kinds, you'd probably get a better answer from someone in retail now. I'm guessing antibiotics would increase around this time of year.
 
You would think there would be more prescriptions for Zoloft and Paxil around the holidays.
 
TheChemist said:
You would think there would be more prescriptions for Zoloft and Paxil around the holidays.
I suspected that too, but it makes sense that people are getting colds.
I use to get nailed once my vacation time came, and I was relax away from work for a few days. My body seemed to say, AHA! now I can get sick...
 
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