Most of the McDonaldization can be seen through the sale and distribution of the pharmaceuticals in the individual pharmacies. Likewise, it is not in the production of the ingredients that McDonald's restaurants use that most people are familiar with, but rather, the practices of the individual restaurant itself where customers buy the finished product. Retail, or chain pharmacies, share many of the efficient features that McDonald's restaurants have, which certainly does have an effect on the speed of delivery of prescriptions.

Efficiency

Modern, advanced pharmacies have machines and technology such as automatic pill counting machines that greatly cut back on the work that the pharmacists themselves have to do. The machines just have to be stocked by the pharmacists and then they essentially fill out and dispense the completed orders. This, combined with the efficient order entry interface, the electronic health records, or EHRs, greatly increase the efficiency and output of pharmacies equipped with these systems.

Pharmacists do still have to count prescriptions themselves in many pharmacies that aren't busy enough to warrant the expensive automated machines, though, and for this, there are the pill wheels/carousels that store many commonly used items in one place. These cut down on the required movement of pharmacists and thus increase their output as well by allowing them to stay in one spot for the majority of their work.

Historically, though, the biggest jumps in efficiency have been in the systemization of pharmacies and the drug companies themselves. Pharmacies are inherently more efficient than ever before because of their efficient, quality-controlled backbones that supply and manage them. Pharmacies commonly out-source the actual production of the drugs they distribute to large companies that specialize in the production of the drugs. Not only does this cut back on the work that the pharmacy companies have to manage, but it lowers prices as well.

Calculability

Pharmacies, in order to operate at peak performance, also have to be very calculable both for the employees and for the customers. This is another way that pharmacies are able to maximize profits and give customers the best experiences and outcomes at the same time. Pharmacies, like fast-food restaurants, have become more calculable in multiple ways over time as the workers find what could be improved upon. McDonald's restaurants are calculable in that the average visit to a McDonald's takes roughly the same amount of time each time and the prices and portions will be the same no matter which restaurant you go to. Pharmacies have had changes that are similar to these, and some that help the workers as well.

Another automated machine that proves very useful in pharmacies is the automatic inventory machine that tracks the inventory of products in the pharmacy itself, reads the orders for the upcoming weeks, and orders more of an item if it is needed. This cuts back on the work of the pharmacists themselves and also ensures that the pharmacy will always have the necessary items for normal operating.

Pharmacies are becoming increasingly patient oriented with pharmacists focusing more on the individual outcomes of patients and their health during and after treatment. One of the methods to do this that is a very calculated measure for patients is through multiple dose-dispensing techniques. These are commonly employed for elderly patients on a complicated treatment regimen that might otherwise forget to take their medications, or forget which medications to take. Now, pharmacists can work with these patients to put their medicines in easy-to-use containers, like the one below, to help make sure that patients are always taking what is needed and when they need it.

Predictability

On the surface, chain pharmacies are almost identical to McDonald's restaurants in almost every way, except for the products they dispense. For customers, though, the process of getting said products is very similar. Simply by placing an order and arriving at the friendly drive through, customers can receive their prescriptions just like they would a bag with food in it at a McDonald's restaurant. Customers also know they will find an area to get over-the-counter medication outside of the pharmacy commonly, as well as many other household essentials.

Pharmacy managers can use and process information about the numbers of patients served in a specific amount of time, and even reviews by customers about their experience, to measure and judge the performance of the pharmacy. These measurements can be used to establish new training procedures, or even standard interactions between the pharmacists and patients that the pharmacists must follow. These changes would certainly make the pharmacies even more predictable for patients, while still further rationalizing, and maybe even increasing patient outcomes depending on what the specific interactions were.

Control

One of the most inherent methods of control in the pharmacy industry is actually over who gets to become a pharmacist. The process of becoming a pharmacist takes many years of education that is very expensive and challenging, and is a task that not just anyone can undergo. This extensive process produces knowledgable pharmacists, as well as people that are vetted and likely not a liability to the companies they work for since dealing with medications can be dangerous.

The pharmacy industry as a whole exerts a level of control over the average customer through the naming conventions of pharmaceuticals alone. Many pharmaceuticals have complex names that most people do not understand, besides those that work in the industry, so they have to rely on the simplified common name instead.

Further, according to Odukoya, pharmacist drive workers will in some cases give less information to customers in drive through lines when the line is longer in order to move the customers along faster. This would certainly increase profits for the companies, and might help impatient customers in the short term be more satisfied, but could potentially be harmful to them when they lack all the information necessary about their prescriptions (Odukoya et al., 2013). This blatantly shows a level of control that pharmacists have over the customers who cannot do much to obtain the information they need when they are being rushed away quickly.

Irrationalities

Everything isn't smooth sailing in the pharmacy industry, though. There are many irrationalities that come in any business or industry that tries to make changes, and sometimes the biggest irrationalities are in the inability to even make beneficial changes. This happens in the pharmacy industry, too, where changes are expensive to implement and might not always be welcomed by everyone. Individuals might not like the new training they have to undergo or the new systems they have to learn how to use, so they might push back against anyone trying to work rationalizing the workplace.The pharmacists that work in the pharmacies every day likely know what needs to, or could be changed, to enhance the efficiency of the very processes that they undertake every day, so it is certainly an irrationality when they are unable to accomplish the needed changes.