It's a pill when a pharmacy turns into a filling station.

• Author: Selinsky, Deborah
• Position: North Carolina's regulation of pharmacists' working conditions

After an Eckerd pharmacist in Wilmington filled a prescription with the wrong psychiatric medicine in 1997, the patient blamed the error for a fall that left a bump on her head. The pharmacist laid blame, too - on her work schedule, noting she made the mistake in the midst of a 16-hour shift. Her tale of long, grueling hours behind the counter - a tale common in her profession - led state regulators to prescribe a remedy drugstore chains don't want.

"We've heard for years pharmacists are exhausted just working 12-hour days," says David Work, executive director of the N.C. Board of Pharmacy, which licenses the state's 6,841 pharmacists. "And they tell us they're not getting lunch breaks. How can we expect them to do their best under these circumstances?"

The problem will get worse before it gets better: Prescriptions are being filled in record numbers - 2.8 billion nationally in 1998. Making things tougher on pharmacists, many stores promote fast turnarounds. So last year, the board proposed capping pharmacists' workdays to 12 hours with a mandatory half-hour lunch break, plus a 15-minute break.

In December, the state Rules Review Commission, which oversees licensing boards' regulations, shot down the proposal, saying the pharmacy board had no authority over employers. But Work plans to lobby the General Assembly for legislation that would make North Carolina the first state to regulate pharmacists' working conditions.

"We're not trying to create nice, cushy jobs for pharmacists," says Mike Overman, an Asheville pharmacist and board member. "But members of every profession - dentists, doctors, lawyers - all go to lunch and take breaks when they need them."

Drugstore chains in particular have been accused of pushing pharmacists to turn around prescriptions faster. At independent pharmacies, the environment is often less stressful. Overman, who worked for Kmart and Revco before buying his own business, says he wants his pharmacists to take time to build relationships with customers. "We won't get to the point of filling 400 to 500 prescriptions a day. We fall at about the national average of 125. And that's how we like it."

"Well, that's certainly not how things are done here," says a busy, young pharmacist in a Durham chain drugstore. "If I had known years ago what I know now, I wouldn't be here. It's just too stressful for anyone to do for very long."

Those emotions are feeding a shortage of pharmacists at chains. Forty percent of Tar Heel...