Researcher at the University of Arizona have discovered that the busier a pharmacist gets, the more likely a customer is to walk away with medications that could interact in a harmful way. Pharmacists studied - from 672 locations in 18 cities - filled about 14 prescriptions in a hour. With each additional one beyond that number, the risk of dispensing a potentially harmful drug went up by 3%. At some pharmacies, almost 10% of prescriptions filled were potentially problematic. Although most pharmacies computer systems flash an alert if a customer orders a drug that could result in an interaction. But the prompt may be overlooked when line are long.
So, next time when you see a long line at a drugstore, but pharmacists are not hurry, be happy about it.
