People who pick up their prescriptions at pharmacy drive-through windows have been found to have a greater chance of receiving the wrong dose or brand of medicine, according to an Ohio State study.
The study looked at 429 pharmacists working at U.S. pharmacies with drive-through windows and found that there were more steps and delays in prescription processing, and that more dispensing errors occurred because of the distractions the windows caused. The study also compared pharmacy chains to independent pharmacies.
The pharmacists were surveyed on the design and layout of their pharmacy, whether their store had a drive-through window, the use of automation, and their perceptions of dispensing errors and communication problems with other staff members.
Sheryl Szeinbach, professor of pharmacy practice and administration at OSU and author of the study, said one of the main reasons for drive-through window errors was that pharmacists were rushing to give customers their prescription.
The person waiting at the drive-through window isn’t the only obligation pharmacists have, she said.
“It’s overwhelming to have so many different distractions: the window, the phone, the fax, people coming up to the counter, asking questions about over-the-counter products and everything else,” Szeinbach said. “There’s either some bell going off or something to let people know that there’s somebody at the window. It’s like one more distraction that pharmacists and the staff have to deal with in the pharmacy.”
One thing that pharmacists were found to be in favor of is automation, a process that counts tablets in a proficient way.
“It’s contributing to more efficient processing and decreasing the chances for errors,” Szeinbach said.
The most common errors resulting from the use of drive-through windows include incorrect dosages, Szeinbach said.
“The bottles are usually stacked,” she said, “10 milligrams, 20, 40 and 60. So a person may pick the wrong strength.”
Other common errors include mixing up an ointment with a cream or giving the wrong type of medicine, Szeinbach said.
“If [customers are] at the drive-through window, they may not have a chance to really talk to the pharmacist or trigger anything to allow that person to question it, because they’re picking it up and they’re leaving,” Szeinbach said. “If they’re coming up to the counter, usually the person will pull the drug out of the container, look at it, verify it with the guest and make sure that it’s the right medication, and so forth. The convenience sometimes in rushing to get through the window may sacrifice on the chance to pick up some of those errors.”
Szeinbach said she has noticed in her pharmacy career how reluctant people can be to work at stores with drive-through windows, but she said they are beneficial for people with disabilities, someone with a car full of children or times when there is inclement weather.
But that sacrifice for convenience could be detrimental to the patient’s health, she said.
Drew Sullivan can be reached at [email protected].
