Over the last decade or so, the number of specialty pharmacies in the industry has greatly increased. According to one industry news report, this is due in part to the fact that drug manufacturers prefer to rely on a specialized pharmacy to assist patients with the administration and use of their drug than to rely on regular retail pharmacies. However, as the article notes, as more and more patients rely on these specialty mail-order pharmacies, the accuracy of these pharmacies becomes critical to patient health.
Most often, specialty pharmacies deal with very expensive medication. In many cases, this medication is provided to the patient in fairly small amounts in order to prevent what pharmacists call stockpiling, or refilling a prescription a few days early and saving the remaining doses. However, while stockpiling may be seen as a negative from the pharmacy’s and drug manufacturer’s point of view, it means that the accuracy of these pharmacies must be spot on, or else patients may miss a dose.
If a pharmacy only sends out enough medication to last a certain amount of time, and there is an error in the shipment, that may mean that a patient does not receive their required medication for several days. In some cases, this can result in serious health consequences. In fact, the article notes that it is not uncommon for a pharmacy to make an error in the quantity of medication that is sent to a patient, leaving them with less than the required amount for a given time period. Most often, a pharmacy will act quickly to remedy this error, but that doesn’t mean that the consequences can always be avoided.