Choosing a Pharmacy is a very important decision in today’s prescription drug driven society. There are many things to consider when choosing a pharmacy to make sure that you are getting the best price and the best service to fit your needs.
Steps

1.Availability: One of the most important factors to consider when choosing a pharmacy is availability. This includes two aspects.
o Location: You want to make sure that the pharmacy is close to where you live or work. When you’re sick you don’t want to have to trek across town to get your medications.
o Pharmacy hours: Also you want to make sure that the pharmacy has decent hours of operation. You don’t need a 24 hour pharmacy, but you want to make sure that the pharmacy is at least open 8am to 9pm during the week. On the weekends hours are not as important considering doctor’s offices will not be open so you won’t be receiving new prescriptions.

2.Insurance:
o Regular Prescription Insurance: You want to make sure that the pharmacy you choose accepts a lot of insurance plans, and most importantly, the insurance plan that you currently have. Insurance plans change regularly so if your pharmacy accepts most insurance plans you won’t have to worry about changing pharmacies if your insurance changes
o Medicare Part D: If you are a Medicare recipient you want to make sure that the pharmacy accepts ALL Medicare Part D plans. As a Medicare Part D patient, sometimes one plan becomes cheaper than another. You want to make sure that if you change plans you won’t have to change pharmacies. You can refer to http://www.medicare.gov for more information.

3.No Insurance:
o Shop Around: If you don’t have any prescription drug insurance, then you want to shop around for best price. Wal-Mart recently released a list of generic drugs that they offer at $4 for a 30 day supply.
o Price Matching: Some pharmacies such as ShopKo pharmacy, are matching these prices, so you don’t necessarily have to go to Wal-Mart to get these prices. If the prescription you are currently on does not have a generic or the generic isn’t on the $4 list, then you will want to call different pharmacies in your town to find the lowest price. You can also ask if the pharmacy will price match. This can be a plus if one pharmacy offers the lowest price on one of your prescriptions but not the lowest price on another. If that pharmacy will match the price of another pharmacy, then you won’t have to go to two different pharmacies.

4.HIPAA Compliance: The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (usually referred to as HIPAA) was passed by congress in 2003. It deals with patient rights. When choosing a pharmacy, make sure that they comply with the current HIPAA laws. Most pharmacies will have a sign posted about private consultations and a patient’s right to privacy. Make sure that your pharmacy has a private consult area. This will ensure that when you need an “embarrassing” prescription the pharmacist will be able to give you a private consultation. To learn more about HIPAA go to: http://hipaa.samhsa.gov/

5.Over-The-Counter Products: It is handy when your pharmacy also carries over the counter (OTC) products such as Tylenol or Sudafed. When your sick and the pharmacist suggests that along with your prescription, Tylenol can help your sore throat, you don’t want to have to drive to another store to have to get it.

6.Friendly and Personal Service: Just like when choosing a grocery store, you want good customer service. The same goes for a pharmacy. You want a pharmacy that will call your insurance company if there is a problem. You want a pharmacy that will work with your doctor on dosing and refill issues. Also, knowing the name of at least one of your pharmacists is always a good thing. It is nice to have someone to ask health questions without having to go to a doctor.

7.Large Inventory: The pharmacy that you choose should have a good sized inventory. Smaller inventory pharmacies often have run out of drugs and this causes the patient to have to wait a day or two to get your prescription while they order it. Or you will have to go to another pharmacy that has your prescribed drug in stock. Every pharmacy cannot guarantee that they will have your prescribed drug 100% of the time, but if they have a large inventory, the odds are pretty good that they will have it in stock.

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How to Choose Vitamins and Supplements to Prevent Flu

This year, 5-20% of the US population will get the flu. Because of it, 200,000 will be hospitalized and 36,000 will die. While there are no guaranteed methods to prevent or avoid flu, some vitamins and supplements are believed to boost the immune system. However, there are ways to minimize the cost of purchase.

edit Steps
1.
Go through popular web-sites such as WEBMD. com, to research which vitamins and supplements affect immune system.
2.
Visit pharmacies and well live stores such as GNC to see what is available and what combination, some of them are sold separately, but some , such as Vitamin C can also be sold in multivitamin packs.
3.
Review Recommended Daily Dosages (RDAs) of vitamins and compare it to what is available at the stores. Also, compare content of active ingredients of supplements, as they don't usually have RDAs.
4.
Look for discounts. To make economically most efficient decision, compare prices and incentives at the store, for example, GNC has discounts for its card holders on certain days, etc.

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How to Get the Best Service at Your Pharmacy

While basic rules for getting a good service apply (namely being polite with the salesperson), there some additional ways to ensure you get the best (and safest) of service when at the pharmacy. These instructions apply to both over-the-counter drugs (which anyone can freely buy without consulting a doctor, e.g. Aspirin, Ibuprofen, Coldrex) and prescription medications (which can't be bought without a prescription, e.g. Diazepam and barbiturates). So here's how to help your pharmacist help you.

Before buying the drug, tell the pharmacist about any other drug you may be using, no matter how harmless it may be. This applies to birth control pills as well.
Know what your pharmacist needs to know:
o Mention any food allergies you might have, especially if you're lactose intolerant, even if the pharmacist doesn't specifically ask.
o Any liver and renal conditions should also always be brought up.
o Some mild antibiotics are OTC. When buying any of these, it's very important to inform the pharmacist if you have a history of hypersensitivity or abnormal reactions to any antibiotic.
o Inform the pharmacist about the age of anyone else you are buying medication for. Basically, there are 4 age groups: Infant - 0 to 4, Child - 4 to 14, Adult - 14 to 60, and Old (or Geriatric) - 60+. However, always mention the exact age of the person.

Know the so-called "generic name" of the drugs you often use. For example, a drug with a generic name "acetylsalicylic acid" may be sold under the brands Aspirin, Asperan, Acetisal, or many more. The best way to do this is to write down the generic name on a note card as many medications have very similar names. This will ensure that you do not take the wrong medication. By mentioning the generic name of a drug, you will help the pharmacist suggest a proper substitute.
Know the "active ingredient" of your preferred medications. For example, Coldrex (a popular anti-flu preparation in Europe) consists of paracetamol (acetaminophen in the U.S.), caffeine, ascorbic acid (that's the chemical term for vitamin C), and other ingredients. Here the active ingredient is the paracetamol, and the others are mixed with it to improve its absorption by the system, or to alleviate the symptoms while the paracetamol works on the cause.
o If the pharmacist offers a specific medication for your condition, ask for alternatives with the same active ingredient. Often there are cheaper substitutes for expensive drugs, their only downside being their less famous manufacturer.
o If your local pharmacy has run out of a drug you use, you might be able to get by with the active ingredient alone. This is only advisable with OTC medications, however. In any multi-ingredient preparation, the proportion of the ingredients and the overall quantity of the mixture are carefully calculated and measured to assure they supplement each other's effects. For OTC preparations (like the Coldrex example above) you may settle for the major active ingredient alone. For any prescription medication, DO NOT take any of the active ingredients alone no matter the dose.

Verify the dosage. When buying prescription drugs, ask the pharmacist to write the appropriate dosage for each of them on the package. This way the pharmacist will be able to correct any possible mistake made by your doctor when filling in the prescription. This will also keep you from overdosing on a potentially lethal drug you may have mistaken for harmless.
o Each drug has a maximum daily allowance dose, indicated in the patient leaflet. To calculate your daily dosage, multiply the indicated active ingredient for a single tablet (e.g. 500 mg of paracetamol) by the number of prescribed administrations (e.g. 3). This gives you a daily dose 1.5 gr. (1500 mg). Consult your pharmacist and/or your doctor if the calculated prescribed daily dose exceeds the dose indicated in the leaflet. Though sometimes a doctor would intentionally prescribe an exceeding dose, it's most often a mistake in the prescription that can cost you dear!
o Never change (increase or decrease) the dose prescribed by your doctor or your pharmacist.

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How to Decide Which Multivitamins Are Right for You

Not only restricted to multivitamins, dietary supplements are big business. The questions is not so much which vitamins are right, the question should be "Do you really need it?" In general, we have more than enough nutrients from a balanced diet. Some pills may contain more vitamins than we need. This article asks you to focus on whether or not multivitamins are really the solution for your needs.

Only take multivitamins if you know you need the vitamins. If you are not already taking supplements, always assume that multivitamins are not right for you. The cocktail of vitamins in a single capsule can be more than you need.


Seek advice from your health professional. This is absolutely crucial, especially if you have dietary, health, or age-group vulnerability issues (such as the very young and seniors).
Take extra care if your are sporty. Athletes should be even more aware about supplementation. An athlete taking multivitamins can become contaminated to make you fail a drug test, which is why in most cases, this defense is useless to fight off doping charges.

Do a seven day dietary analysis. At the end of this do a blood test. This will help to determine if you need multivitamins.

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How to Dispose of Unused Medication

If you've decided to clear out that museum of unused medication in your medicine cabinet, how do you get rid of all the stuff responsibly? You don't want to contaminate the water supply, nor do you want medication to fall into the wrong hands. Here are some guidelines.

1. Check the instructions. Sometimes they'll provide guidance as to what's the best way to dispose of that particular medication.[1] If you don't have the instructions, see if you can find them online, or call the company that manufactures the drug to ask.
Don't flush! Sending the medication into the water supply is not a good idea, especially if you have a septic system - drugs can leach into the water table, turn up in nearby lakes or streams, and even on your own property. (Caveat: often medications end up in the water system even when taken, through urine or feces.)[2] The only medications that should be flushed down the toilet are:[3][4]
o atazanavir sulfate (Reyataz Capsules)
o entecavir (Baraclude Tablets)
o fentanyl (Duragesic Transdermal System)
o fentanyl buccal tablet (Fentora)
o fentanyl citrate (Actiq)
o gatifloxacin (Tequin Tablets)
o morphine sulfate (Avinza Capsules)
o methylphenidate (Daytrana Transdermal Patch)
o Meperidine HCl Tablets
o oxycodone (OxyContin Tablets)
o oxycodone and acetaminophen (Percocet)
o sodium oxybate (Xyrem)
o stavudine (Zerit for Oral Solution)
2. 3
Find out about disposal options in your area.
o Call a local pharmacy to find out if they can dispose of your medication. In some states, although not all, they have an unused medication disposal program that the pharmacies themselves may use to dispose of outdated medicatons.
o Consider donating your unused medications to third world countries. Look to the Starfish Project [5], who accept certain types of medications (Though not any expired medications.). There are other organizations you can find online. Alternatively, consider contacting your local Emergency Rooms, occasionally, they will collect usable supplies and medications for donation out-country.
o Call your local trash service - they might have household waste facilities that will incinerate the medication.[6]
o Contact your local Hospital or Medical Center who will place unused medications into their Bio Hazard containers for incineration. All Hospitals have this option so there is never a need to toss or flush unused medication.
3. 4
If your only option is to throw the medication in the trash, then do everything you can to make sure it doesn't fall into the wrong hands. Not only is this a concern if people might pick through your trash (whether in your neighborhood, or at a landfill, or anywhere in between) but it is also dangerous for children, pets, and wild animals.
o Take pills out of containers so people don't know what they are.
o Mix the pills with undesirable substances, like kitty litter.
o If the medication is liquid, mix it with sawdust or flour.
source: www.wikihow.com

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