[Revised Mar 02]
A dispensary label is printed with a barcode, to be laminated or enclosed in a small plastic sleeve, to make an ID card to be handed out to patients who are on drugs likely to cause significant interactions with OTC items, are customer club members, or have customer accounts.
The patient can be advised to present this card at some time during the sale (start or end) to be passed under the scanner to identify them to the computer so it can check their OTC purchases against their drug treatment and advise interactions for the pharmacist to consider the significance.
Some pharmacies may want to also issue these to members of customer clubs or those with customer accounts, or to speed identification of the account and provide evidence of authorisation to charge up purchases.
This allows a significant advance in professional care by the pharmacy, and provide major patient benefit for those on certain drugs (anticoagulants etc).
It also provides a marketing advantage to those pharmacies able to provide this service to their customers.