What the hell does a pharmacist actually do?
The only thing I know of for sure is they take 1/2 hour to verify my prescriptions. That come pre-boxed. I assume they don't even put the sticker on the box
Tech types prescription
Tech prints label
Tech finds medicine on shelf and labels correct quantity of medicine
Pharmacist makes sure the drug that the tech typed is the same as the drug the doctor wrote. Pharmacist makes sure directions, days supplly, refills, and all other details are correct/valid.
Pharmacist checks your RX history, to see if there are any interactions and risks (often there is an automated process that runs this check that gives the pharmacist the list of red and yellow flags ....)
Then, once they are sure that the prescription is valid, and that its filled correctly, and that its not going to interact with something else you take, and hopefully after they make sure its not going to interact with any drug allergies you have, then they are able to consider it "ready for pickup".
In Addition, they often consult with the customers about the drug, side effects, and anything else important to make sure the patient knows how to use the medicine safely, and that they are informed about possible risks.
Often they are taking prescriptions dictated by doctors over the phone as well.
And, since pharmacists are highly skilled, and highly paid, they generally have 1 pharmacist on staff most places at any one given time (other than shift overlaps between morning and night crew)
So what happens is the pharmacist is busy in the morning for a rush, then slow until lunch, then it is slow until people start getting off from work. Then from like 5pm until 7pm, they wind up getting 600 customers all at the same time ....
You have good, great, bad and terrible pharmacists.
The ones who say there is an hour wait, they are usually not the terrible ones.
The terrible ones are the ones who do not double check every step. The terrible ones are the ones that have a 5 minute wait all the time, even when there are 60 people in line.
Anyhow, unless its a prescription from the ER, why not just drop off the script on the way home from work or the doctor or whatever, and then pick it up the next day or whenever you pass by the pharmacist later on? you dont have to wait on site.