Pharmacy Procedures (How a scrip becomes a pill)

If I had time tonight, I would write this in the style of schoolhouse rock. Yet, I don't. I'm supposed to be writing a paper for my Psychology of Personality class.

So, doing research, talking to people with views different than mine, and people in the pharmacy industry, I've been able to isolate a reason for this whole dang EC thing. The claim is that filling a prescription is so much more involved than simply selling condoms, so a pro-life pharmacist who refuses to sell EC is more like a ob/gyn who won't perform abortions than a Catholic cashier who won't sell condoms.

Of course, my answer to that is that all of them are equally wrong. In fact, in my eyes, the cashier is most justified. Being a pharmacy clerk is situational employment. It's a low-paying job that a person takes because it's available and they were hired; a pharmacist or an ob/gyn has undergone years of schooling and professional training for their career. They've made a choice, knowing what the job involves might conflict with their personal beliefs, and yet persisted in persuing their career. I have no sympathy. More so because the cashier would get fired, yet the pharmacist and doctor are protected. It seems to me to be a class issue.

But I digress.

Is it really so involved? Is there something really special that goes on behind those ecru-half-walls that enclose the pharmacy from the area where glucose testing strips and "back massagers" are sold?

My pharmacy informant says not. I talked to a licensed pharmacy technician this week. In exchange for a box of generic fruits'n cream flavored oatmeal, she let me in on what goes on in a pharmacy. I call it-

How A Scrip Becomes A Pill

By H. Barista

First, a patient interacts with a doctor. The doctor determines the medication to be prescribed, and, if applicable, the dosage and amount of refills. At that point, the doctor hands the patient a prescription, or calls the prescription in to the pharmacy.

If the doctor calls the pharmacy, a pharmacy technician answers the phone. She takes down all of the information as if it had been written out, and enters it into the computer. If the doctor gave the patient a paper prescription, the patient brings it into the pharmacy and hands it to a pharmacy technician, who then enters the information into a computer.

The pharmacy technician then plays fun games with the insurance company. If they're like mine, they probably won't cover it, because they won't cover anything. If they're a good company, they will cover it.

The technician then goes and physically takes the medication off the shelf. She checks both the label and the pill against computer records. She counts it out and places it into a proper bottle. She then places a label on it. With Plan B, which is pre-packaged, she just places the prescription label on it.

Finally, she brings the prepared prescription to the pharmacist, who scans it once more and places it in a bag.

The pharmacy technician or pharmacy cashier then rings the patient up, and hands them their prescription. They ask them to sign for it and ask if they have any questions for the pharmacist.

The End.

So how involved, how INTIMATE, was that? Obviously, it would be terribly traumatic for a pharmacist who did not believe in contraception to in fact, verify that something already prepared was the proper contraception, and put it in a bag. Oh, I forgot to mention. Sometimes ,the pharmacist staples the bag. Stapling is 9/10ths of the law, right?

So this whole process brings up two things-
1. What is the moral imperative pro-life pharmacists find that prevents them, not from preparing, not from recieving, not from dispensing, but merely verifying- a contraceptive prescription? What it comes down to is that pharmacists are not just refusing to participate, but standing in the way where ever possible. And that's fucking rotten. Would these same pharmacists, if learning that a co-worker planned on going straight from work to have an abortion, lock them in the closet (wow, that's a fucking BAD metaphor)

2. Why can't those pharmacy techs just hand over the Plan B? It's against the law. Other than that, there's no danger. It's packaged. The dosage is explained, both on the prescription, and in the package insert. It's clearly labeled as what it is, and there are no refills to mess around with.

As to the first, if it were widely known how little interaction pharmacists had with pre-packaged prescriptions like E.C., maybe their beloved moral exceptions would be pushed aside and lawyers for large pharmacy chains wouldn't be so afraid of the evil, moralizing bastard pro-life pharmacist lobby. As to the second, if that couldn't be done, perhaps legislation could be proposed that allows pharmacy TECHNICIANS to dispense factory-packaged prescriptions without pharmacist verification, making sure that a single employee couldn't prevent a person from receiving birth control or EC.