How to find a pharmacy

Looking for a pharmacy in Calgary? Here are some tips to help you find the right one.
Nov. 5, 2009 | By: The Health Local Staff

With a pharmacy or drugstore seemingly on every corner, you probably haven’t given much thought to choosing one. Get a prescription from the doctor, take it to the closest pharmacy and get it filled. Done! Right? Actually, you may be wrong.

There’s a lot more to choosing a pharmacy than just location. Let’s say you generally just fill a prescription at the pharmacy closest to where you are. That could mean you fill one in the dispensary in your doctor’s office, one near the walk-in clinic where you went on a Saturday and another at the pharmacy closest to home. If you’re doing that, you could be putting your health at serious risk.

Why is that so dangerous? For one thing, each drug has potential interactions with other drugs. If you have an ongoing prescription for blood pressure medication that you fill at your neighbourhood pharmacy, your neighbourhood pharmacist has that on record. But if a doctor at a walk-in clinic then gives you antibiotics, those drugs could interact. If you have the antibiotic prescription filled at a different pharmacy, the pharmacist may not be able to warn you about potentially lethal interactions.

Not only that, but by sticking to one pharmacy, your pharmacist will have an entire record of your health at hand whenever you need it. He or she can tell you if an over-the-counter medication will interact with anything you’re taking, as well as offer health advice based on your unique situation.

That’s why it makes sense to stick to one pharmacy for all your dispensing needs. But at the same time, there are lots of pharmacies around, which makes choosing the right one a bit tricky. Here are a few tips to help you get started finding the perfect pharmacy.

Start by listing your requirements in a pharmacy, which can include:

• Location
• Hours of service
• Types of services offered (i.e.  does the pharmacist also provide consultations?)
• Method of payment (i.e. do they bill your benefits provider directly? Do they accept cash, credit cards and/or debit cards?)

Once you’ve listed your needs, ask your family, friends, co-workers, family doctor or other health care practitioners if they can recommend a good pharmacy. Next, try doing a search on Health Local to find a pharmacy in your area. The pharmacy’s listing will have information (including website links) to help you determine if that pharmacy meets your requirements.

Then, stop by each of the pharmacies on your list and have a chat with the pharmacist. He or she can tell you more about the services they offer, helping you put your health decisions in the right hands.