Yesterday, when I was getting perscriptions for broncitis filled, I was sitting and could see the pharmasist as he checked (I assume) my perscriptions. The tech put the bottles down and he opened the bottles of pills and poured a few on his hands, looked at them then wrote something down. Then he took the cough syrup (Hydromet) opened the bottle, held it up, and waved his hand over it towards his nose like he was smelling it. Do they teach pharmasists what medicines smell like at school, and could he really tell the diffrence if it was the wrong one?
I though this was pretty strange as I had seem the same pharmisist put the cough syrup in the bottle himself only a couple minutes before, sohe knew it was right...
2007-01-05 01:33:35 · 4 answers · asked by heather k 3 in Health ➔ Other - Health
I am a pharmacist and many times I will do the same thing, especially if there are multiple liquid medications for the same person/family, just to make sure one of them did not get mislabeled. After doing the same thing multiple times it becomes more of a habit to do it automatically irregardless of who actually put the medication in the bottle. And yes, there are a lot of medications that the smell is very distinctive and you will know immediately, otherwise it's a sniff comparison between the stock bottle and the prescription bottle.
2007-01-05 01:40:20 · answer #1 · answered by Kelly B 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
actually YES- the smell is important.
depending on the "type" of medication it is, several have very strong oders that alert a trained "eye or nose" to possible contra indications.
example: sulphur drugs and some antibotics have strong smells and can make a "sick person" unable to swallow them, at times a chemical agent "smell" is added to make it taste and smell better and you are not even aware of it.
Cough syrups are a big one! Ask you mom about those gross ones we had as kids! No more- lucky you!
2007-01-05 09:39:23 · answer #2 · answered by Denise W 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
yes we know what the more common liquid medicines smell like. It's how we double check what is in there. We can look at the marking on the pills, but liquids aren't so easy.
That is why I usually pour and label liquids myself, so I don't need to double check what the technicians did.
2007-01-06 17:44:28 · answer #3 · answered by jloertscher 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Why didn't you ask him what he was doing?
2007-01-05 09:40:32 · answer #4 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋