Ask a Pharmacist

I recently was involved in a discussion around whether the old style dispensaries should be changing to something with less barriers to the public, both from seeing what we do and with speaking to us. A chain in Australia experimented with that and I explain why it didn’t work. However, the practicality of dealing with people barking their drug orders to you, as well as the advent of robotic dispensing, things may change again.

I’m a big believer in increasing visibility of the profession and what it is that we do exactly. Most people who can see over our elevated bench see us reaching for stock and that is where the public perception of us begins and ends. The problem without any barrier is that we are at the exposure of constant interruptions from customers. One pharmacy chain in Australia experimented with a forward dispensing system, and most of their stores were refurbished to include this, however, it was not the success it was expected to be. Essentially, at the front of the dispensary area are two desks with computers. There is a separate small book shelf between the two. This allows the pharmacist to sit at the computer if he or she needs to dispense, or to consult literature, and discuss issues/counsel patients who may also sit on the other side of the desk. Behind them is the shelves of medication placed with the ’spine’ of the shelf facing the shop, and at the back a large dispensing bench attached to the wall with two computers at either side. The theory was that the dispense techs and the intern pharmacists can put the scripts through at the back, and the pharmacist just needs to check them. The pharmacist can spend more time at the front desk, in a more consultative role, while still having a dispensing computer and printer at their disposal. Over the past three years, this chain has began refurbishing their stores with the traditional, dispensary bench where the pharmacist is behind, and the front being an area for assistants to take in prescriptions. The only main difference is that these areas are not elevated like the old dispensaries (that Seinfield made light of in an episode intro as I recall) and some have had robotic dispensing integrated. Why did the well respected and innovate pharmacy chain revert to the ‘old’ way? The main reason I suspect was because most pharmacists declined working at the front because they were constantly being interrupted. Even when talking with a patient, people would see that you were in the one position and interrupt. If you were trying to dispense and check a prescription, you would get interrupted. While the idea sounded great and the implementation looked great, most felt it would be matter of time before they make a mistake caused by the constant interruptions. In these dispensaries, the pharmacists migrated to the back dispensary area, almost completely out of view of the public, simply so they could focus on checking. When required, they would come out and speak to a patient, but they spent the majority of their time out of clear view. Now, they had become less visible compared to the old raised dispensaries. I have seen other pharmacy chains/stores experiment with similar setups, and the same problem I hear is that patients will come right up to the pharmacist and interrupt. I am not against change, and I embrace the idea of being more accessible and yet enforce the professional image of what we do, but there needs to be a compromise between tearing down the wall, and maybe replacing it with a useful but less daunting barrier.

Do you ever miss the days where you worked in a place with a nice raised dispensary, and while you would still go out and counsel, when you were dispensing, you didn’t have to contend with someone leaning over, glancing down at what you’re doing (which is privacy issue) and asking you where the dishwasher powder is…?

Tags: ask a pharmacist, ask the pharmacist, ask your pharmacist, australianpharma, buy medications, canadian pharmacy, chemmart, consis, counsel patients, dispensing robot, dispensing system, drug, drug counselling, drug question, drug treatment, front desk, medication, medication administration, medication query, medication question, pharmacist, pharmacy, pharmacy chain, pharmacy counselling, pharmacy robot, prescription, prescriptions, quesiton a pharmacist, question a pharmacist, Willach

This entry was posted on Wednesday, December 23rd, 2009 at 1:11 pm and is filed under News Posts. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.