Health Care Professionals Group

How do pharmacists know if a prescription is real?

I went to the drug store to fill my prescription yesterday and a man was being arrested inside for trying to fill a fake prescription. I looked at the prescription I was holding and it looked like a normal piece of paper...nothing special. How do pharmacists know?

Public Comments

1. If they aren't familiar with you and/or the doctor and/or the look of the scrip itself they simply call and verify.
2. they call the doctor or doctor's office who gave it to you
3. It is their hunch that something is not quite right. I know that that is not the best answer, but that is how it is done, generally. There are new prescription pads out now which readily show if something has been altered. They are issued with other safeguards which one can only guess at. Basically, they look at what is being prescribed, the amount/strength, the number of times per day to use it, are there refills, etc. They are not doctors, but they learned and are well aware that some drugs are just not prescribed in that amount or for that period of time...and if they are, they call up the doctor to double check to make sure.
4. There are several ways. Fake prescriptions are usually for particular types of drugs, like painkillers and antidepressants so they are particularly careful with these. Noticing unusual patterns is a clue. Like the person coming in too regularly or often for that type of drug. Errors in the dosage or frequency which a real doctor wouldn't make (their directions on the prescriptions are written in a unique type of shorthand code). The type of drug for the condition. Even noticing changes in address details from previous prescriptions. Sometimes the people are known to the pharmacists as being prescription drug abusers too.
5. they try them