RX FILLED BEFORE IT'S WRITTEN\Valencia firm offers pharmacies pills to go.

Byline: James J. Rodriguez Daily News Staff Writer

For those tired of the time spent waiting in pharmacy lines to have prescriptions filled, a Valencia businessman says he has a cure.

Golden State Medical Supply Inc. will begin nationwide mass marketing of a prescription dispensing method he said will cut the amount of time it takes - and costs - a pharmacist to fill a prescription.

That, said President James L. Stroud, will give the pharmacist more time to consult with customers who'd rather not wait while pills are counted one by one.

"The impact of this product will virtually reduce, if not eliminate, those long lines and long waits at the pharmacy," Stroud said in a recent interview at his Valencia Industrial Center.

The system is called "unit of use" and is operating successfully in Europe, Stroud said.

Stroud's company has teamed with CibaGenevea Pharmaceuticals to market the dispensing method, which includes tablets and capsules already bottled in amounts commonly prescribed by doctors.

The bottles are labeled with dosage information, warning notices and expiration dates - all items that typically must be typed out and affixed to prescription bottles at the pharmacy.

Pharmacists who back such packaging systems say it would allow more time for legally mandated consultations with customers to ensure that they take the medication properly.

"From a pharmacist's point of view, the consulting is more important," said Perry Himber, a pharmacist at the Valencia Pharmacy. "Now that it is mandatory, you have everybody scrambling to comply with regulation. Anything that would be of labor-saving value I'm sure would be welcomed."

According to Carlo Michelotti of the California Pharmacists Association in Sacramento, $65 billion to $70 billion is spent each year on medical costs and treatment for people who took their medication incorrectly.

"The pharmacist consultation is important to every one of us, even as it relates to over-the-counter drugs," he said.

The unit-of-use method has been attempted in the past, but with no success, Stroud said. Some health maintenance organizations also are using the method, but not on the grand scale that Stroud hopes his will be.

"None of them have taken the approach we are taking," Stroud said. "They didn't put 100 percent of their effort into it."

Stroud said his company will market the product to health management organizations, drug store chain pharmacies and independent pharmacists in three phases. The first distribution of 50 types of medication is expected to begin this month.

Stroud said the time saved for pharmacists also will allow them to "focus on other ancillary services, such as glucose testing or special compounding. Basically, we hope to help the pharmacists switch from their current role of counting pills to what they were trained to do."

While some pharmacists said they welcomed anything that would make their job a little easier, others expressed reservations about repackaging. They also predicted that the process would cost more and worried that the system would reduce the need for pharmacy personnel.

Some said they were skeptical of using medication that has been repacked from a manufacturer because questions arise about the validity of the expiration dates.

"Repackaging has been done in the past," said Michelotti. "Repackaging for commercial and community pharmacies really hasn't made great inroads. It has not achieved widespread acceptance by the community of pharmacists except when it is packaged by the manufacturer."

With the nation's population aging and needing more medication, pharmacists are busier than ever, Michelotti said.

"The picture of the pharmacies you see on television is not exactly the way the pharmacy is today," he added. "There is a certain amount of pressure simply because of the pace; a pharmacist feels he has to process so many prescriptions per hour so he can justify his salary."

And while pharmacists do that, Michelotti said they also need time to consult with customers.

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