If the medication doesn’t come in a box with inserts, then the literature may be stapled to the paper sack.
Childproof, arthritis proof, one-handed proof… they’re as much of a pain in the ass as the blisterpacks, if you have any kind of hand-dexterity issue.
My experience with US prescriptions is from 2003. If it’s gotten better, hallelujah and about bloody time.
Most actual pill counting is done by technicians, the pharmacists does any compounding needed, handles scheduled (restricted) drugs, discusses medications with customers and generally oversees the pharmacy in a commercial pharmacy.
FTR, OTC non-liquid preparations containing pseudoephedrine (Sudafed) are required by law to be sold in blister packs. It’s supposed to make it harder for someone to use them in the manufacture of crystal meth, but if they’re willing to do everything else you need to to make meth, I don’t think popping tablets out of a blister pack is really a deterrent.
As far as other drugs, a lot of what Walmart dispenses comes in blister packs to save the cost and labor of counting out thirty and popping them into a vial. Having dealt with a lot of different pharmacies’ products while transferring prescriptions into and out of my pharmacy, Walmart is the only one I’ve seen embrace blister packs to any great extent. Certain drugs (triptans, birth control, steroid dose packs, among others) are always supplied by the manufacturer in blister packs, but most pharmacies order large bottles of most other drugs.
Most blister packs in the US have a puncture-proof backing. Each pill has this backing. You pull it off by finding the tiny corner that’s not glued down. After you peel it off, you then can puncture the foil and get the pill. If you need two pills, you have to peel the backing off another pill.
I think blister packs would be ok, if they offered “non-childproof” versions. You can request this now with pill bottles.
When I worked at a small pharmacy, we’d package orders for the jail (and other institutions we had contracts with) in blister packs. We then took returns on unopened portions and credited their account.
Big money saver for the jail, since they’d have prescriptions for a week or two, and the patient would be gone after 24 hours, leaving a pile of unused pills that would otherwise be trashed.
Count? Don’t they have each scales? You put 1 pill on this side,then dump more on the other side until the indicator gets to 30.
I guess it would be cheaper to blister pack at the factory than count at the store.
Note, if you can get bottles, Walmart supplies ones with nice, easy to ues snap caps if you sign your life away. Walgreen and my vet use the adult proof on the outside, screw on the inside ones. I learned from a friend with a guide dog about the caps from the vet.
I wonder if one could persuade the pharmacy that one’s inability to open these things should be accommodated under the ADA or something similar. I mean, a *good *pharmacy will put the stuff in a bottle out of good customer service, but seems like some people need the thread of a good lawsuit to do the right thing.
In related news, I spent almost an hour yesterday popping pills out of blister packs for one of my elderly clients. Ah, the glamorous life of a home health care nurse! 
I’ve seen these scales at most pharmacies but I’ve never seen anyone actually use one. Lord knows I never did. If I had a high number to count (#120, #240, whatever), I’d use a tray that counts out #100 or #60 with interchangeable molds for different size/shape tablets, but that’s only because the pharmacist where I worked bought one for the store. The company didn’t provide anything but the standard tray and spatula setup.
Some pharmacies use the Parata or other brand counting machines, which are big machines that are loaded with a number of common meds and count them into a bottle, put a lid on it, slap a label on it, and send it down to be verified – but by far the most common mechanism for filling in a pharmacy is manual counting of every tablet and capsule.
WhyNot, as far as the pharmacy popping stuff out of a blister pack – mine would do it, provided there were no legal (such as with Sudafed) or manufacturer (such as with birth control) restrictions on doing it. If the pack says to leave it in the blister until administration, that’s what we did.
True. That is a problem, especially as discussed upthread, with migraine stuff.
One of my clients solved the problem by popping out each Imitrex and putting it into a “dime bag” (little teeny tiny ziptop bags from the hippie store/head shop), sucking out the air with a coffee stirrer, and sealing it well. He stored his little dime bags in a jar kept in a dark cupboard.
I’m not by any means saying anyone should do it, just a report from the wild, as it were.
I hate having to get Benadryl out of a blister pack in the middle of the night. I will choose the bottle of loose pills over a blister pack if I can help it at all.
The only thing I have to take that comes in a blister pack is my birth control medication. And it’s not childproof, it’s easily punch-through-able.
When my grandmother died, the hospice nurse took every single one of her prescriptions and washed them down the sink. Think of that next time you’re having a nice glass of water out of the tap.
Most things here are dispensed in blister packs, although, occasionally loose in little bottles, although typically only the cheap generic stuff like Cyclizine, folic acid, doxycycline, pseudoephedrine (no major meth problem here) and iron tablets.
The boxes for the pills will have the pharmacy label on them, identifying the issuing Dr, patient’s name, pharmacy name, medication, dosage, date of issue and number of tablets.
Huh, I don’t mind the blister packs at all - but then I don’t get migraines. I find it makes it easy to just pull out one pack at a time and mine aren’t too hard to push through (antiacid pills). And no chance of dropping the whole bottle in the sink.
Childproof caps are what piss me off. I have no children! I generally end up either transferring them or not screwing them on all the way.
Typo Knig and I both take Prilosec. Back before it went generic, the brand name OTC version came in blister packs. You had to peel off a thick layer of plastic, then push the pill through thin foil. The plastic was pretty much impossible to peel off enough to make the foil layer usable. We had to use heavy-duty scissors to get into the damn things - cutting VERY carefully to avoid damaging the pills.
And neither of us is all that elderly or disabled in any way. We switched to the generic because it required less in the way of weapons (still needed scissors, just not as much hand strength). Then the brand-name reformulated their packaging so it no longer requires tools… unless you’re disabled. Still requires hand strength and a little dexterity, just not hardware.
The prescription version, before it went OTC, came in bottles. Bottles are a HELL of a lot easier to handle (and can have their lids replaced with non-childproof ones if needed).
Now, there are blister packs that are reasonably easy to use - like the meth raw ingredients we occasionally use when we have colds. Sudafed can be easily pushed out of the blister pack.
The only prescription I’ve ever gotten in a blister pack is Diflucan - then again, the standard dosage of that is a single pill.
Blister packs for home use are an abomination.
Y’know, this thread may be providing an answer to the OP. We don’t use blister packs because they don’t test market well. People hate them.
They hate *American *blister packs. Which suck. Non-American blister packs are something completely different.
I always assumed it was to provide maximum dosing freedom to the doctor. He can prescribe you to only have 3 pills without the pharmacy needing to break a prepackaged blister pack for less than a full pack amount.
Don’t know about other countries, but some American blister pack backings can be so tough that you destroy the pill trying to push it through.
…which would presumably be the blister packs test marketed in America, or the blister backs focus groups are thinking about when answering questions about whether they’d buy prescriptions in blister packs…