Dispensing:
Dispensing means supply of medicine to an individual patient according to the criteria of "A standard pharmacy practices and dispensing manual guidelines" usually on the response of prescription. If the product is not available commercially then preparation and supply are done.
A pharmacist must have a throughout information about the following aspects of drugs.
- Stability of drug and excipients.
- Principle of compounding.
- Therapeutic, physical and chemical incompatibility.
- Dosage forms and strength of dispensed product.
- Labeling procedure.
- Packaging of pharmaceutical product.
- Legal requirements about drugs regarding purchases, sales and distribution.
what is prescription:
The prescription is a written order or statement to pharmacy shop for the supply of pharmaceuticals, surgical dressings and appliances etc to the patient.
The prescription is a written order for compounding, dispensing and administrating drugs to a specific client or patient and once it is signed by the physician it becomes a legal document. Prescription is required for all medication that requires the supervision of a physician, that must be controlled because they are addictive and they carry the potential of being abused, and that could cause health threats from side effects if taken incorrectly. For example heart medications, insulin and antibiotics.
prescription is from the doctor, dentist or veterinary surgeon to the supply of medicine. Praescriptus is made up of two latin words, “prae” meaning before, and scribe, is a word root meaning to write. Putting it all together prescription means to “write before” which reflects the fact that a prescription traditionally has to be written before a drug could be mixed and administered to a patient.
Parts of prescription:
A proper medical prescription consists of the following sections.
- Patient information
- Superscription
- Inscription
- Subscription
- Signs
- Refill instruction
- Signature name and address of the prescriber.
Patient information:
This section contains some common information about the patient like patients name, his age address etc. age is especially important when age is below 18.
Superscription:
The superscription is an R x symbol in the upper left corner of the prescription.
It is a Latin world and is put in the memory of Jupi which is the god of healing in Greek mythology.
Inscription:
The inscription is the main body of prescription. It contains name, dosage form, route of administration and strength of the product.
Subscription:
It contains addition instruction to the pharmacist regarding preparation and supply of medicine.
Refill instruction:
Refill instruction is important to determine how much time the container is refilled. Refill information is important especially when there is a long-term therapy such as that of tuberculosis and in hypoglycemia.
Handling a prescription according to good dispensing practices manual:
After prescription, the patient has to take the medicine from any community pharmacy where a pharmacist should receive him. A pharmacist is responsible for delivering proper medication to the patient based on the prescription of the prescriber. The pharmacist should follow the sequence below from receiving the prescription to the dispensing of drugs.
· Receiving and Reading the prescription.
· Pricing the prescription.
· Numbering and dating of prescription.
· Labeling of the dispensed product.
· Preparing and compounding of the dispensed product.
· Rechecking the prescription with the dispensed product.
· Delivering the medicine.
· Recording the prescription for future legal purposes.
receiving and Reading a prescription:
The most important step of them all is the reading of the prescription. The way a community pharmacist handles a prescription can glorify his professional status to the patient and to the prescribing authority. It is highly recommended that the first person to receive the prescription in community pharmacy should be a pharmacist himself, however, if by any means it is not possible then the person receiving it should be enough qualified to at least properly read it, and he is able to identify required data from it. the person receiving the prescription must have knowledge about various abbreviations and short handwritings of the physician. A generic name if not fully understood should not be guessed from own. Instead, it is recommended to confirm the drug from the physician. The pharmacist should be adequately qualified to have enough knowledge about the drugs available in the pharmacy. He should check the prescription for any drug-drug interactions and contra-indications, in case if there are some serious contraindications or dosage errors the pharmacist must inform the prescriber about his/her error. A pharmacist may not change the drug classes and generic names as prescribed in the prescription on his own, without doctor’s consent. If a doctor by mistake prescribes the wrong medicine and pharmacist delivers the same wrong medicine as prescribed, then both the doctor and pharmacist are liable for legal actions if something wrong happens.
The pharmacist should know about the stock available in his shop so that he can confirm it in time, if the medicine prescribed in the prescription is available in his stock or not.
pricing the prescription:
Pricing depends upon many factors. The basic aim to keep in mind before pricing a finished product is that the price should not be too high that the consumer does not come back, nor it should be too low that is not economical to sustain the dispensing of that product. In case of mono-therapy, the price is always on the label which is determined in the pharmaceuticals while in case of compounded drugs the price is determined by the pharmacy. Cost of raw material, electric expenditure, labour cost and time taken for preparations of drugs are some of the key factors taking part in pricing the drugs.
combining these aspects pricing a prescription can be via any method below;
combining these aspects pricing a prescription can be via any method below;
- fees dependent upon the type of dosage form and the number of doses supplied.
- percentage markup of the cost of ingredients.
- overhead costs, costs of ingredients and professional fees.
Numbering and dating the prescription:
numbering and dating are for identification purposes in case of referencing in future. Dating the prescription also helps to establish its identity and should never be omitted.
preparing the prescription:
After reading the prescription and identifying what is required in it, the next step is to prepare it. For mono-therapy this doesn't make any difference however with drugs requiring compounding, an official knowledge is required. The order of mixing is very important in case of compounded drugs. Although the number of drugs requiring compounding represents a smaller proportion of the total, yet it is important that a pharmacist can compound it.
Rechecking:
rechecking the prescription cannot be underestimated. the ingredients and amount should be rechecked by the compounder.
the age of the patient and the dose given to him should be rechecked to identify incompatibility if there is any.
Delivering the prescription:
improperly dispensed or casually wrapped product gives an impression that the whole prescription has been dealt the same way.
When the pharmacist himself delivers the medication to the patient he can better brief him about the use of the drug.
in case if the pharmacist cannot provide it personally he should ensure that the person delivering the product is able to brief the patient on his behalf.
Recording:
keeping a record of is helpful to the patient, pharmacist and the doctor. for the pharmacy, it is a step toward marketing and helps determine the future needs of the store.
for the patient, it is helpful in terms of future legal matter and insurance and tax purposes.
