Polypharmacy: The Dangers for Your Pharmacy and Your Patients

Some patients think that pharmacies want a patient to only use one pharmacy out of greed. While this is not actually the case, convincing them otherwise can take some effort. Sometimes they just don't understand or feel they have no choice, or sometimes they are deliberately attempting to mislead pharmacy staff. With $4 drug lists, there are an increasing number of elderly who use large chain pharmacies to get the medications that are eligible for the $4 list and will go to a locally-owned pharmacy for everything else for the "human touch" or just because they know the pharmacist. Many aren't aware that most locally-owned pharmacies are willing and able to match the $4 prescription list. Sometimes all you have to do is ask.

There is an inherent danger to both the patient and the pharmacy when a patient chooses to use multiple pharmacies. While the danger to the patient may seem obvious, and the danger to the pharmacy trivial, both will be discussed here.