 | Glen Mathis has been the co-owner of Mathis Drug Store in Girard since 1983. For more information or to reach Glen, please call 620-724-4313. |
Health & Medicine
2010-10-01 11:45:00
Mail order vs. local
Question: What are the pros and cons of receiving mail order prescription verses local pharmacy?
Answer: Would you go to a warehouse to get your kids school clothes already labelled in a box? Would you buy shoes from a dump truck on the side of the road? Would you purchase slabs of beef from you barber? There are certain jobs and certain things that should be done in a proper fashion. So who fills your medication? What is in your bottle? How long has the medication been there? Who touched your pills?
It is state law that your dispensing pharmacists in local pharmacies have his or her licenses posted in the store. Do mail order pharmacies send a copy of theirs with each fill? Your medication is accounted for if you purchase it from a local pharmacy. Your local pharmacies have many quality control checks. One example of such controls is temperature, this is very important during hot months. Did you know that no drug should be exposed to temperatures above 86° f. This information can be found on the stock bottles of medication. Mail order prescriptions would exceed this temperature in a delivery truck that runs about 150°f. This could mean that half of the potency could be lost. Heart patients, diabetics, and just about anyone taking their medication for a purpose should be concerned.
Pharmacy laws, good practices and pharmacist patient relationships contribute to medication safety. Medication information, experienced advice and drug recall safety seem to be lost when the package is found in the mailbox next to the electric bill. At local pharmacies you can visibly see where your medication is counted and by whom. Not only is the pharmacy putting a face to the customer, the customer can put a face to the person who is putting their life saving pills into a bottle. Is there any type of facility or persons, which you would not like to fill your medication?
So then a person could ask or debate the cost of mail order and the cost of local pharmacies through insurance. Yes, some insurance companies prefer mail order and might reduce cost or increase the day supplies. It would also be cheaper to let the nurse remove your kidneys while the surgeon is “supervising” over the Internet. How far are we as a society willing to go to save money???
Seeing the physician, getting a correct diagnosis, and prescribed medication appropriately is not the end of the getting better cycle. Getting and taking the proper medication that has been double checked not only for safety but also in reference to your other medications is also a part of the cycle. So, one of the last steps of the get better cycle is “Seeing your Pharmacist."
