Pharmacy Rules to Live By

1. Drop your non-urgent prescriptions off, and then come back the next day. This cuts down on not only your wait time, but that of people with urgent prescription needs, like the kid screaming in the first aid aisle because his ear hurts and he wants to go home, but needs his antibiotic prescription.
   
2. Don't ask why it's going to take 15 minutes to fill a cream/ointment/tube of toothpaste because all we do is "slap a label on it." Your prescription is no more important than anyone elses, and despite not having to be counted, it still requires being entered into the computer, processed through your insurance, labeled, checked by the pharmacist, and then bagged. Your label doesn't miraculously print the instant you walk up to the counter, and you're really only offending your pharmacist and technicians by suggesting that their jobs are so simple.
   
3. Don't yell at the pharmacist/technician/cashier if your insurance isn't working. Save all that nastiness and call your insurance company up yourself, instead of demanding the pharmacy staff do it. Chances are, we won't get anywhere by telling the insurance representative that yes, our patient should be covered. But you might. And consider this - when you ask us to do this, it takes up a lot of our time that could be spent checking prescriptions for others. Same thing goes if someone else asks us to do it, and you are waiting for your prescription...that's why our wait times are so long.
4. Don't yell at the pharmacist/technician/cashier if your Vicodin, Soma, Oxycontin, or methadone prescription is too early to be filled. It's really no one's fault but yours that you took too much, and unless you are willing to pay my salary until 2045 when I reach retirement age, I'm not breaking any laws for you. If it's too early, shut up, go home, and wait it out. By acting up, you only made it harder on yourself, because now you have a note in your file warning everyone that you try to get early refills on controlled substances.
5. Don't bad mouth other pharmacies or pharmacists to us. It's almost guaranteed that we went to school with that pharmacist, are friends with his or her spouse, or used to work at that pharmacy. Our profession is very small, and we know everyone. Badmouthing someone only makes you look like a complainer, and make us hope that you find another pharmacy to go to.