ok so it seems like theres a couple dozen of us on here, and I was reading thru the "needles" thread when it was asked "what do you do?" I would've thought by now someone would've started it, but here it is the "this is who I am" post

I am a Nationally Certified Pharmacy Technician, I live in the USA, an average week for me now consists of at least 50 hours a week working 10 or 12 hour shifts with two to three hours a day to myself aside from late nights. to put my job into perspective, every time you get an Rx (short hand for prescription) filled, everything from data entry (entering the doctors short hand to legible writing) to ready to fill (where the medication is packaged) is done, the respect in my area for pharmacy employees have dropped considerably, I feel the government gets more respect then I do.

being a technician isn't easy though, to roughly explain what I do, even though the pharmacist (any on-duty pharmacist hired by the company that works at my location) is my boss, I take your script, enter it in the system, bill your insurance, count your medications out, record any vital information, sell you the finished product, maintain pharmacy records, assist the pharmacist in day to day activities, maintain pharmacy stock, clean and vacuum the pharmacy from time to time, send expired or damaged medication to their proper places via mail, call your insurance for billing or coverage issues, call doctors for verification on medications. all on a daily basis. and here are some things I feel you need to know.

1 PRIOR AUTH: your insurance will not pay for the medication until they speak with the doctor, the reasoning's could vary from trying cheaper alternatives first, to get the doctor and insurance on the same page, or why a particular medication is needed ..... example Viagra instead of Cialis *yes this has happened

2 Refill Requests: when your medication runs out of refills, yes as a courtesy we send your doctor a request for a new prescription, your doctor does not have to answer it, can deny it, or ok it, this is a courtesy and if after a day or two it is STRONGLY recommended you contact your doctor, normally if you call us with your expired or out of refill Rx's a week ahead of time the doctor gets back with us BUT I have had doctors take a week to get a refill

3. partial fill (this is more of a pet peeve of mine): if we do not have enough medication in stock we can and most of the time do give you your prescription with a few days worth, (speaking from experience) deliveries are made daily but you are given between 3-5 days worth of medication to allow us time to fill it, in turn do not come next day, and do not let it sit for over a week, we have to put it back to stock and what you got already is (speaking from experience) free

4. brand/generic medications (state law varies on this) but my state law mandates the generic medication be sold unless the patient, doctor, or insurance says otherwise, this is like brand Tylenol vs acetaminophen it is DEA and FDA regulated to be the exact same in terms of active ingredient or AB rated, there are generics that have been taken to court and are not AB rated but XB rated *not sure if its XB or not but roll with it* (epi pen and epinephrine pen) yes both are epinephrine but the drug company Mylan took other epinephrine pens to court and said that those pens are not equivalent and proved it, now there are times where Brand is medically necessary and that's ok,!!!! but and speak with your doctor this is purely advice I do not know your medical history, this is purely for informational purposes and you should not rely on my word alone!!!! generics are safe (this statement is purely my opinion, again I do not know your medical needs) this has happened... a patient wanted brand purely for the fact that he likes it, NO OTHER REASON! NOT EVEN MEDICAL!
GENERIC IS GOOD!!!!

now that we are on the same page, please be nice to us, we not only have corporate bosses watching our every move, we have the DEA(drug enforcement agency),FDA(food and drug administration),HIPAA (health insurance portability and accountability act),OBRA(counseling obligations, prospective drug utilization review requirements, and record-keeping mandates). BOP (board of pharmacy), EPA (environmental protection agency), State laws, Federal Laws, Doctors orders, all to follow

speaking from the heart we do our best to make everyone happy, we give everyone what they want, but please be nice, most of us don't want to be there either at times, we have lives outside the pharmacy, we can have a bad day, we all do, my intentions behind this are purely for informational and educational purposes, if you ask for the pharmacists advice please take it, you take advice from your mechanic, your lawyer, your doctor, your personal trainer, your therapist, your friends, take the advice from the pharmacists, they are legally obligated to tell you your options and do what they can with what medications are readily available to the public.

ty for taking the time to read this, and I am really interested in reading what you do!!!!!