10 Things Your Pharmacist Won't Tell You

It seems that doctors are prescribing a lot more medication than they used to. In 2007 pharmacists filled 3.8 billion prescriptions, up from 3.3 billion in 2002. Michael Negrete, CEO of the Pharmacy Foundation of California, says that some physicians may actually be prescribing drugs unnecessarily, say for the flu. “It’s easier and quicker than explaining to a patient why they don’t need an antibiotic,” Negrete says.

The upshot is that your pharmacist is probably working harder than she should be—Paul Lofholm, owner of two pharmacies in Marin County, Calif., says his pharmacists fill prescriptions at a rate of 80 to 100 per shift. “Pharmacists are stressed out,” says Frederick Mayer, a veteran pharmacist and president and CEO of the Pharmacists Planning Service in California, “and it’s getting worse.” One side effect is that most pharmacists don’t have the time to offer the counseling federal and state law require with each prescription. It’s not just a formality—a pharmacist’s recommendation for how and when to take a certain medication can go a long way, for example, in helping to decrease some of the adverse side effects of medication.