FIELD PLACEMENT
TWINKLE PATEL
I was at 555 prince Charles pharmacy (welland) for my placement. I have completed 135
hours in this pharmacy. It is independent pharmacy owned by Mr. Mike the pharmacy is located
always surrounded by doctors. Pharmacy will move in new building next month. That pharmacy
was neat and clean. They also took care about hygiene of surroundings. Sanitizer is available on
cash desk for customers. The new building is on left of the old one and construction is going on
so some time the place become noisy due to construction. There is one bench under the tree in
front of pharmacy where I used to eat my lunch. There is one bus stop across the road so it was
easy for me to get bus from my pharmacy. There are total 3 pharmacists who working on
alternate days and 1 pharmacy technician who is available on all five week days. The working
hours of my pharmacy are 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. Monday to Friday. It is closed in weekends. My
pharmacy technician name is Tricia she have completed her study from Niagara College and she
is working all five days at pharmacy. I learned everything from her. Mike was my pharmacist
and owner of my pharmacy. He is working on Tuesday and Wednesday with Tricia. Kiren
puranik was another pharmacist and he is working on Tuesday and Friday with Tricia. The best
thing about him is he knows my native language because he grown up in India. The third one is
Mohr. He is working only on Thursday. He helped me for my pharmacy registration exam. He
gave me good guidelines for it. All these members have good co-ordination with each other and
also have good work flow. It just likes a small family .they all were taking good care of me.
Pharmacist and pharmacy technician both welcome the patient when patient enter to
pharmacy. Tricia, pharmacy technician, always fill prescription and count medicines while
pharmacist check the prescription, verify DIN number and do the cash for that medicines. Then
lastly pharmacist attends med-check by asking patient about any side effects of that rug. Tricia
also handles delivery of all drugs. There was different file for regular drug invoice and narcotics
invoice. Tricia also arrange prescription according to date and store them properly. I use to help
her with prescription and blister pack.
That pharmacy was new just opened before few weeks so it was quite slow. They have
only few regular customers for blister pack. They have approximately 15 to 20 prescriptions per
day. So they filled around about 125 prescriptions per week. They have just 5 or 6 repeats per
day. The proportion of repeats is very less then new prescription.
Pharmacy is like a cage of medicines. They have all medicines like, controlled drugs,
narcotics, over the counter drugs, prescription drugs and some basic things require in routine.
There were three places available for OTC drugs; one just behind the dispensing area, left side
at entrance and in front of compounding area. It includes some NSAIDS, sleeping aid like
Tylenol, Benadryl etc and some acid blockers and many others. There is separate locker for
control and narcotic drugs which is at the back side of dispensing area. There is one big slider
rack for prescription drug where all drugs were arranged alphabetically. There were two
refrigerators at pharmacy; one deep refrigerator near the narcotic locker and another
refrigerator were located near the dispensing counter. Three counting trays with tablet splitter
were always available on dispensing counter. The pharmacy was not too big so it would take
less time to fill prescription and this physical layout was very convenient to customer because it
reduce their wait time. Furthermore there were magazines for customer which helps them to
reduce their wait time. Air conditioning and sitting arrangements make customers more
comfortable.
All pharmacists and pharmacy technician were very intelligent and knowledgeable. They
were treating each and every patient very nicely. As pharmacist has more knowledge about
medicines mostly he was handling the patient and solving their problem regarding medicines.
Furthermore they were taking very less dispensing fee just $10.99 per prescription. They were
preparing blister pack on request of patient and also provide blister pack to old age people so it
will become easy for them to take medicines on time. They also give some gifts to regular
customers like kitchen, pen, bag and many others. They all were working like a team and taking
good care of their regular customers as well as their new customers. Compounding area was so
clean. Pharmacist was look twice for compounded medicines and compounding always occur
under the supervision of pharmacist. It would reduce the risk of dispensing wrong medicines to
wrong patient. Pharmacist was already to give answer of any question asked by patient. These
all services will one day make the pharmacy busier then now. They also have home delivery
services for old age people.
They also can transfer the prescription if patient want medicines to their nearer place
and if patient want them to transfer their prescription from other pharmacy to prince Charles
pharmacy then also Tricia help them to transfer this prescription by calling to other pharmacy .
Med-check is not available at all pharmacy but in this pharmacy it was available an even kiren
went to house of some patient who is not able to come at store for their med-check. This was
the distingue feature of my pharmacy. As that was new pharmacy some services were not
available for patient. They had regular prescriptions more than that of narcotics because they
don’t have large stock of narcotics at a time they have to order it after getting prescription.
They should keep stock of narcotics so patient will get it at a time. Except this, everything over
there was match to ideal customer services.
There were two slider racks for prescription drug including all dosage form. All brand
name dosage form was on the front rack and all other generic dosage form was behind this
front rack. All capsules and tablets were arranged first in rack. Creams and ointments were
arranged below capsules and tablets. There were separate corner for eye drops, ear drops and
inhalers in the same rack. There were also schedule C drugs available at that pharmacy. There
were special arrangements for schedule C drugs. Mainly three categories involved in schedule C
drugs; enzymes and hormones, vaccines and drug use for allergies. Vaccines were refrigerated
in refrigerator, enzymes and hormones were kept on rack with prescription drugs and drug for
allergy were put at the front of the dispensing area. Work load was very less because that was
new pharmacy and very less customer Hardly were they filling 15 prescriptions per day but
there were quite busy in med-checks. They were starting many new services to customer which
would increase the flow of customers.
When new patient comes to the pharmacy, pharmacist greats them nicely then they first
ask about any allergies and health card / health plans. Then after they enters patient’s profile
and their health plan. After this they search for drug and doctor. They calculate day supply for
the drug and put proper direction on that prescription. Then they dispense medicines and
transfer it to suitable container then label that container. After this they scan it and do the
cash. The trial supply is only 30 tablets only. This is the complete procedure when new
customer comes to the pharmacy. Pharmacist checks everything of that new prescription.
Pharmacist matches the DIN of label with that of DIN on bottle. For repeat prescription,
pharmacist enters the patient’s last name then checks the profile of patient and all prescription
of that patient. For the repeat of control drug, pharmacist must have to check previous date of
filling. If the next repeat is to early then pharmacist cannot give that repeat without any legal
document. Pharmacist must have to confirm this to doctor for early repeat. Pharmacist can give
vacation supply for regular prescription. Pharmacist must have to pay attention for repeat of
control drugs.
They were using kroll software for filling prescription. That was very easy for me as I have
already worked on that software during my lab at college. This system has many advantages.
We have to put total quantity in authorize quantity while in other system we have to put pack
size I feel little bit difficult to put pack size. It’s very easy to put number of tablets or gram of
cream or ointment or doses of inhaler. They could also place order of medicines through this
kroll software but sometimes it was not possible to put order through the kroll. So at that time
pharmacist had to place order directly from the official website of that drug. This is the only
advantage of that kroll computer system at pharmacy. They have to put order before 11 a.m.
To get delivery on the same day otherwise it would be available on next day. Tricia check expiry
date every week and remove the expiry drug then return to the company. Mainly they order
medicines from kohl & Fischer so they return these drugs back to them. for narcotics, pharmacy
technician remove drugs from locker then check expiry date and expiry narcotics then destroy
under the supervision of registered pharmacist. Inventory was doing by Tricia. She enters DIN of
the drug in kroll then enters add the quantity into on hand quantity. This inventory procedure is
same for all drugs. This inventory records were stored in file and there were separate file for
narcotics and for regular drugs. Inventory, ordering of drugs, returning of expiry drug , filling
prescription , dispensing of drug and maintain cleanliness were handled by pharmacy
technician while med-check and supervision were did by pharmacist. There was another
computer for cash. So my pharmacy technician every day enters the drug which is not found in
computer for scanning. So it would become easy during cash. Sometimes she also was doing
cash when pharmacist is busy with patient for med-check. Sometimes during billing if problem
occurs with health card which would be solved by pharmacy technician. Sometimes it happens
due to error in patient’s birth date or error in health card number. This is the manual mistake
which could be corrected by rechecking the prescription but sometimes computer shows that
patient not covered under plan at that time my pharmacy technician call to ODB and gives all
detail to them about patient. By this way she tried to solve the problem.
Pharmacy was really well organized. They had great management and have good, welleducated staff. All staff members utilize their skill to make customer happy and satisfied. Mike,
the owner of pharmacy never behaves like boss with his staff. They were not filled only written
prescription they were also taking faxed prescriptions which were sent by doctor. After
receiving the faxed prescription, Tricia enters the patient name and follows the same procedure
as in written prescription. Then pharmacist again check the DIN and then he put in pick up
bucket. When this patient come to store pharmacist check his or her health card then after give
the delivery. My pharmacy technician was really very hard working. She always ready to solve
the problems of customer. She was very fast calculation so she never use calculator for
counting day supply or dispense quantity for particular day supply. Transfer from other
pharmacy was very large process, first they have to call to other pharmacy and request them
for transfer, after this they have to fill all prescription in kroll and hit transfer from other
pharmacy and the information like name of pharmacist, address of pharmacy and many other
things.
I learned all the things from my pharmacy technician. She never treated me like teacher or
any boss. She always explained me like good friend.bt we all have to face many problems in
transportation because welland is too far from Niagara falls. Although we gained a lot from our
placement and due to this the saying, “we never gain without pain” proves true.