In a hospital, there is usually a pharmacy. Hospital pharmacies service any of the patients in the hospital. Hospital pharmacies are convenient because they can service patients who are right there in the hospital. These pharmacies often service cancer or heart transplant patients. Also, some people may go to hospital pharmacies if they can't find the medicine they need at a drug store, since some hospital pharmacies are compounding pharmacies. A compounding pharmacy is special because it can actually make the medicine to meet your needs.  So if you have certain allergies or if you like certain flavors, they can make capsules, pills, or liquids just for you.  They can even turn most solid medicines into liquids for very young children or children who have a hard time swallowing.   

Pharmacies also sell lots of different things.  For example, they sell candy, pain relievers, and vitamins. 

For children, a compounding pharmacy can make medicine in almost any flavor you want. Just some examples are pina colada, root beer, banana, cherry, and grape. In some places, they also make medicine without preservatives for children with allergies to those preservatives.

Special machines are used to mix up the medicine. The machine in the picture is called a hot plate and it also stirs medicine. One way to make a solid medicine liquid is by crushing the tablets up and adding liquid to them, stirring it up, putting it in a container, and mixing it up.  In the pictures you can see an example of a really interesting machine in the pharmacy.  There is a small magnetic disk in the bottom of the beaker.  The machine causes the disk to spin rapidly inside the beaker which causes a whirlpool.  Pretty cool!

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