Pharmacies: Submit personal info, get prescriptions faster

A delay in prescriptions has seasonal visitors worried. They say so many people are asking for pharmacies to fill their medications. It’s taking a long time to get life-saving drugs.

A Collier County woman told WINK News a CVS location near her took seven days to fill her seizure medication.

“I want to make sure other people don’t go through what I go through,” said Cathy, who asked WINK News not to share her full name.

Cathy is spending the winter in Naples. She uses the CVS Pharmacy near Pelican Bay for her seizure medication when she stays in Florida.

And since she’s not able to drive, she comes to this CVS because it’s close enough for her to walk.

“Up north, it takes a couple of hours, at the most, maybe four hours to get a prescription filled,” Cathy said. “Eventually, I called the district manager for the Naples area, and he called the store. That’s how I got my prescription filled.”

Pharmacist TJ Depaola is president at Cypress Pharmacy in Fort Myers. He said there is generally a longer wait time than normal when the snow bird population is present.

“They need to have their insurance card,” Depaola said. “They need to have as much medical history information as they can get.”

This helps pharmacies get patients the medications they need faster. But Cathy wasn’t expecting delays.

“It was very scary for me,” Cathy said.

So she is warning others to do research and give the pharmacy as much time in advance as possible.

WINK News contacted the local CVS about wait times at the pharmacy but did not receive comment in time for air or publication.

Cathy told WINK News she is exploring other options for medication.