Using outside pharmacy for private hospital prescription

[pj123]

I have always obtained my medicines from the hospital pharmacy but is it possible to get a prescription from your hospital doctor to be filled by an outside pharmacy? Does the hospital charge for this? 

[Upnotover]

You most likely wont need a prescription at all, if you know what you want a pharmacy will likely sell it to you.  My cardiologist gave me a list of what he wanted me to take (he didn't ever expect I would want to be ripped off by the hospital) and I just bought them monthly from one of several pharmacies, never a problem and they never wanted to see the list.

[timendres]

You will discover that it is not easy to get out of the hospital without purchasing the prescribed drugs. It is all built into the check-out and pay process. I believe this is why the government was investigating hospital pricing practices recently. You might be able to refuse to purchase the drugs at checkout time, but I have never attempted it. As @Upnotover stated, it is pretty rare that your local pharmacy will not sell you drugs they have in stock. I do believe there are certain drugs for which they will require a prescription, but they are somewhat rare.

[impulse]

My doctors often suggested I fill the prescriptions outside the hospital to save money.  The exception being those scripts that are only available in a hospital pharmacy.  But that was only the tightly controlled stuff like serious pain meds.  Like Upnotover said, it was usually without a prescription at all.  But I'd suggest bringing one the first time, just to be sure. 

 

For me, it often wasn't about money because my insurance paid 100% of what I got in hospital.  But taking an hour or so out of my day to go to the hospital and waiting in the queue wasn't worth saving a few bucks compared to using the pharmacy downstairs in my office building.

 

Shop around.  Even the small pharmacies can have widely varying prices.

 

[impulse]

3 minutes ago, timendres said:

You will discover that it is not easy to get out of the hospital without purchasing the prescribed drugs. It is all built into the check-out and pay process. I believe this is why the government was investigating hospital pricing practices recently. You might be able to refuse to purchase the drugs at checkout time, but I have never attempted it. As @Upnotover stated, it is pretty rare that your local pharmacy will not sell you drugs they have in stock. I do believe there are certain drugs for which they will require a prescription, but they are somewhat rare.

 

I did that quite a few times, declining meds at the hospital payment window.   Never had an issue.  Often, it was because I elected not to take the bucket full of antibiotics they prescribed for the sniffles.  Sometimes because I was already stocked up.  They just deleted the line items from the bill and I didn't stop by the pharmacy to pick up the meds I hadn't paid for. 

 

[NancyL]

When you're talking with the doctor during your visit, you should ask what medicines he/she plans to prescribe.  Then ask if they are available from outside pharmacies. If so, I ask the doctor to prescribe a small amount, say a week's worth, just so the hospital has record that I take the medicine if I'm admitted as an inpatient and purchase the rest on the outside.

 

I think it's an inconsiderate to refuse medication after the pharmacy and cashier have processed the doctor's orders.  It just creates additional work for them.

[jojothai]

21 minutes ago, NancyL said:

When you're talking with the doctor during your visit, you should ask what medicines he/she plans to prescribe.  Then ask if they are available from outside pharmacies. If so, I ask the doctor to prescribe a small amount, say a week's worth, just so the hospital has record that I take the medicine if I'm admitted as an inpatient and purchase the rest on the outside.

I think thats a good policy and i know some doctors do that.

In bangkok at the bangkok christian hospital they have a fair pricing policy for medication and i find their prices reasonable. However some items can still be relatively expensive.

You can buy most things at pharmacies, but not some controlled items. Easy to check, ask the doctor.

Use pharmacies that you can trust. 

In bangkok, the pharmacy i use for a long time has some of the cheapest prices and always seems to have customers when i visit, some farangs go with shopping lists. 

South east pharmacy at 207-209 sukhumvit road, near soi 15.

Edited December 22, 2020 by jojothai
Correction

[ChipButty]

Down here in Phuket they dont like it, upto you, Im not paying their prices for Tylenol when I had already bought a box of 100 and whats them sashes of re hydration called? I said you can take them off I bought a big box of them from Mackro,

I think they over prescribe drugs, they gave me 500mg asprin my eyes were going all funny and I was feeling dizzy so went to the local pharmacy and I told her she asked me had I had a heart attack, No just a slight stroke stop taking them she said and gave me some 80mg asprin,

[ChipButty]

I think the hospitals have the monopoly on certain items, 

[Sheryl]

The vast majority of drugs that are prescription-only back home will not require a prescription here. Antibiotics, cardiac medications, statins -- all can be gotten over the counter here.  The main exceptions are any type of narcotic, steroids, and tranquilizers.

 

Mark ups at private hospital are huge so pharmacy will cost much less.

 

You have an absolute right to refuse medications at the hospital and buy them yourself. Start by trying to find out from the doctor what they are (name, dose) and tell him that you will buy them yourself. Even doing this, you may find a prescription when you go to pay -- some private hospitals use algorithm that automatically tack on certain drugs based on diagnosis even if nto ordered by the doctor. Simply decline them. (I find it simplest to tell them I already have it).  If you were not able to find out from the doctor what is being prescribed then you will have to see what they are at the counter, make not of name and does and then refuse it. Note that by law hospitals are required to allow patients to buy medications at outside pharmacies. And nopm, there is no charge for that (though you will of course have a charge for the consultation).

 

Do nto expect a written prescription of the type used in Western countries, there are no prescription pads here.  All you need is the drug name and dose.