San Jose Clinic Pharmacy #6

Today was extremely busy! I arrived at San Jose and there were tons of packages from the Pharmacy Assistance Program waiting for me to check in the inventory sheets. For once, I think my mouth was glued shut! Only to look up to greet the incoming patients or saying hi to the pharmacy staffs. Checking these medications in are very important to maintain an efficient program to disburse medications for the patients in the pharmacy. As I continue to make my ways down the huge pile of medications, I began to notice a long line forming in front of the pharmacy. Suddenly, the pace of the pharmacy sped up quickly and the pharmacist asked for me to help her dispensed some medications for the waiting patients ASAP! It was in the "production" stage, a pharmacy term that describes a stage of counting the medications before it is verified by the pharmacist for drug interactions, that I realized San Jose pharmacy is running on an ancient system of dispensing medications! Moreover, I found the system to be quite repetitive and inefficient. For example: scripts are not scanned into the computer beforehand (so that the pharmacist can catch any mistake a technician might have made, thus revision can be made before the labels are printed) and there is no automated pills counter (very useful in case of dispensing over 100 pills). I found myself counting 240 - 360 pills by hand on a small pill counter platform! Thus, it is critical for the technicians and pharmacists to be 100% accurate in dispensing medication at San Jose since there are no "checkpoints" established like what you will find in retail or hospital pharmacies.