Narrative Paper

Have you ever wondered what happens to that little piece of paper when a person drops off there prescription to the Pharmacy? And how much vital information that piece of paper contains, it tells us how much of the medication you need and how a person is suppose to take it. First a person walks up to the pharmacy and drops there prescription off to me a Pharmacy Technician. Next you have to make sure the Doctor wrote the medication and directions down correctly. Then make sure the drug is in stock and on some medication called C2 drugs that are highly addictive make sure the Doctor wrote his or her DEA number down. This identifies the Doctor and what hospital or clinic they work at this is called verifying the prescription. After those procedures are done then you have to enter the prescription in to the computer system, first you have to scan the prescription. After you scan the prescription then it shows up on the computer screen then you start entering in the prescription.

Next you enter the date. By entering the date you can always go back for references on when the prescriptions was entered, and picked up. Next you enter the medication and the milligram this is all determined by your doctor and how much you weigh. Then you enter the quantity. Next ask the patient if they would like child proof caps on there medication or would the like the standard cap you have to ask the patient for legal reasons. Next you determine if the patient wants to wait or come back later, in some conditions the patient wants to wait because they need the medicine now or they might just be in a hurry. Next you have to see if the insurance that the patient has is going to cover the prescription and if the prescription is refilled to soon the insurance company determines all of these drastic measures. Pharmacy staff works with them online 24 hours a day 7 days a week. Then if the insurance approves of the medication it will prompt the Pharmacy staff of any out of pocket fees. Then print up the prescription. After printing the prescription it comes on a label, on the label it tells where the location of the medicine is located in the Pharmacy so that the Pharmacy staff can find the medicine more efficiently. Next you scan the label on a special scanner, the scanner holds all the drug information in the system but it is usually determined by that drugs NDC number, then you scan the drug, by scanning the drug it pulls up how the drugs shape and or smell is and it determines what color and what numbers or symbols are on the drug. On capsules or tablets you have to put the pills on a tray that weighs them and it calculates the number of pills that should be on the scale. All this information is determined by the label. If you put to many pills on the tray it will tell you "over" and if it's not enough pills it will tell you "off". By using the scanner it makes it easier to count without counting by hand. On liquid medication you have to compare a new bottle of the medicine to an old bottle of the same medicine to determine if the drugs smell and look the same. This is done because if a liquid sits to long it can lose its potency. On C2 drugs that are highly addictive