Results of the ABC News ’20/20′ Undercover Pharmacy Investigation

What about the errors doctors make that are caught by the pharmacist on a daily basis? There are two sides to the coin. Your piece of one-sided jounalism doesn’t show the positive impact that pharmacists make. One error is too much and we take our profession very seriously. It’s easier and more lucrative for your show to focus on the negative. I’m dissappointed in 20/20. I thought your standards were higher than that! Broadcast a show highlighting duties performed by a pharmacist that make a postive impact on patients and you’ll get me back as a viewer. Viewers, where else can you go to get free healthcare information when your doctor isn’t available? I’ve spent the last 25 plus years working nights and weekends and helped scores of people during that time. Your pharmacist will always be there for you.

this report only shows one side of the story. my friend is a pharmacy technician and she is ptcb certified. i think she is very well qualified. she works for a major chain in which they want you to fill a prescription in 15 min or less. while you have customers asking why does it take so long remember they just don’t sit at a computer and type they have to pick up the phone answer questions and deal with ringing up store merchandise all together. we have to minimize there work so that they can pay more attention to us when we are picking up. so they don’t have there mind on what’s on sale! and they will have more time for patients instead of customers that are not picking up rx’s!!!!

The question arose “what about the good pharmacists have done?” This story was about the absence of said pharmacist and the bulk of the technical work being completed by “untrained” personnel. Pharmacists themselves are a very competent, respected, and well paid breed. I don’t think, no matter how much training “technicians” get, that they receive the knowledge of a 4, 6, or 8 year degreed program comparable to a pharmacist and, as such, should NEVER be responsible for filling prescriptions. They are perfect for duties such as fact checking, ordering of supplies, cashier work, assistant tasks, etc. A pharmacist should be onsite the entire time the pharmacy is open and should be the sole employee performing the skilled work, while the technicians assist – and only assist this process. If these chain stores have a quota for their pharmacy, they’ll need to rethink this strategy as if I had any clout in this industry, their CEOs would be putting some of their record profits back into the business to insure the pharmacy is staffed by proper personnel. Since when has this country switched paradigms so that which is good for the few (IE – the wealthy) outweighs the needs of the many?

After seeing your 20/20 story tonight I just had to respond…As a full-time 49-year-old pharmacy technician(& a 4-year colon cancer survivor — after 3 major surgeries!!) at a major chain in the Northeast, I can only say that I am an intelligent, conscientious, competant mother of 2 college-aged students and am very concerned and disheartened by your story (of which it is)…The pharmacy that I work for (for 7 & 1/2 years now) will ONLY employ anyone over 18 years old– but who wants to start at a starting salary of $6.50 an hour and then gradually progress to $8.00 after completing 6 months of computer training and 4 in-house workbook courses (in which you have to travel 30 miles both ways??)…Heck…you could walk across our parking lot to McDonald’s and start at $8 or $9 an hour & flip burgers or be a manager…Where is the comparison or logic? Filling prescriptions correctly is worth a lot more money than getting your take-out order right at the drive-thru burger joint…don’t you think??…why don’t you ask the top execs why the starting salary is so low??…heck..i’ve been working my rear off and getting the scripts right but the pharmacists in my store change from month to month…they can’t keep them or they change them from store to store..the higher-ups don’t really care about the techs…just keep the pharmacists happy…not good business…customers don’t like it (they want consistency) and I don’t like it…I am great at what I do and think (hope) my customers appreciate me for that and if I ever wanted to sue my original doctor for malpractice (two botched surgeries) I could have (gee…maybe I should…I could be living the life I always dreamed of!)…you never even took a glimpse at the prescriptions that doctors’ write and the pharmacy tech’s have to read them…come on…check out these doctors’ handwriting while you criticize the tech’s job…just a thought!!! Bet you won’t follow up on that…got lot’s of doc’s who are guilty of VERY POOR HANDWRITING and still don’t use an e-script or e-fax (way better for us techs)…thanks for listening…P in PA

Kathy…”fast checking”…what is that…??? I’m a tech and we need a cashier in the pharmacy…is this a “fast checker”??

I listened to the report and it amazes me because I’m not sure that 20/20 even knows what the responsibility of the pharmacist is. Unfortunately, a pharmacist does not have time to do every single task in the pharmacy. there is usually only 1 pharmacist working at a time, the rest of the employees are usually technicians. I will begin by stating that even the possibility of errors, as a registered practicing retail pharmacist makes my skin crawl. It is an awful fact of life that pharmacists face because we are after all human. However, there is a perception that we cannot make mistakes no matter how understaffed or rushed we really are. And I agree – I strive to not make a single mistake in any day of my career – that is truly my goal. Is that realistic? It is the expectation. There is a huge responsibility that goes with the territory, and I face that everyday. I don’t think that the general public understands the consequences a mistake can have. I think that everyone needs to understand what it is exactly that the pharmacist does behind the counter in between being griped at by angry patients concerning insurance claims or longer than 15 minute wait times or just someone coming up that wants nothing from the pharmacy other than to be rung up. I think that the general public and evidently 20/20 does not understand that it is the pharmacist’s ultimate responsibility to make sure that your prescription is accurate (this includes multiple aspects of checking – right patient, right drug, right drug strength, right quantity, right directions, right refills, right doctor just to name a few). AND NOT ONLY IS IT ACCURATE, we check to make sure that there are no drug interactions or allergies. We also check that the dose is reasonable and will not harm the patient. This is our ultimate responsibility – our reason for being. Not to count by 5′s or explain why insurance/drugs cost so much. I think that it’s quite funny that 20/20 is trying to rile people up because a pharmacist is not counting your prescription. That is not our responsibility, simply put. However, it is our responsibility when something goes out wrong. Technicians are to be prudent and fill responsibility, but everything they do is to be double checked by the pharmacist. So is it the fault of the 16 year old technician? answer: mostly not. I am willing to bet there was a big law suit involving walgreen’s. And i imagine that the pharmacist is being held liable. It is extremely unfortunate that mistakes are made. I cannot imagine having that happen to a loved one in my family, nor could I imagine making a mistake like that. I think that I would not be able to practice as a pharmacist after that, knowing that a mistake caused that much harm. The disturbing fact is, however, pharmacists are human and thus capable of making mistakes even on a good day. And the environment of retail pharmacies are such that they create an environment where mistakes can happen. From the gimmicks of gift cards (that cause people to be “incentivised” to go from pharmacy to pharmacy leading to drug interactions left unchecked which may cause serious harm – something that we are promoting at chain pharmacies) to the idea that you can get your prescription in less than 15 minutes especially if you haggle with the pharmacy staff, retail pharmacy is very high stress. There are constant interruptions which I believe are a major source of errors. Not to mention being rushed by people who have no clue what consequence an error may have on their lives. Yet, as sure as the sun will come up tomorrow, I will have someone come into my pharmacy tomorrow and tell me about this news story, but in the same breath tell me that they need their Rx ASAP and they will have a cart full of groceries to ring up with it. Or even better, they’ll pick up their prescription and not pay a bit of attention because they’ll be too busy talking on their cell phone. I have actually counseled patients while they were talking on their cell phone. As one sided as this story is, it would be nice if just for one moment people would think about how important this process is that they would actually take it seriously. a lot of the problem, and this is a point of agreement with ABC actually, is due to corporate coming up with gimmicks and ways to fill more prescriptions with less people. I’ve also actually heard of schemes by certain corporations (luckily not my employer) concerning quotas for pharmacists in terms of what percentage they fill within 15 minutes. Unfortunately, this seems to be the image that the corporate world wants to burden the profession of pharmacy with, and they have done a damn good job at that. This is what the public really expects and wants from pharmacies and I think that it is very unfortunate. It truly is a disservice and an ill-use of skills by otherwise very capable pharmacists. But that is my opinion. Many pharmacists get burned out in retail and leave either because they get beaten down from being rushed checking literally hundreds of prescriptions without any break in sight for 14 hours a day, or from being harassed by patients that cannot find someone at the insurance company to yell at, or by news articles like this that demean the profession. But then again, 20/20 wouldn’t make it’s money or have nearly the response if the show highlighted the actual day of a pharmacist and what the responsibilities actually are and how pharmacists can help prevent errors. No scandals = no sales for news corporations. Sounds like your corporate and my corporate should do lunch sometime!

I noticed that you seemed to target Walgreens Rx in your story. I think that this is a bigger problem than you realize. Being an employee of The Kroger Co. based in Cincinatti, Ohio I am forced to use Kroger Rxs because they are self insured.
Having delt with Kroger Rxs after 12 years my wife and I have seen many stupid mistakes made by thier employees, too numerous to list.
I used to remodel and build pharmacies for Kroger and the HIPPA privacy law may well not exist. Rx employees discuss customers’ medications and behaviors like a soap opera
Joe

There are 2 sides to this story. While it is right to hold the pharmacist and the pharmacy accountable and responsible for prescription errors, the physicians who prescribe medications and the patients who are given the medications have similar acccountabilities and responsibilities on their end. Most prescribers do not write legibly or conscientiously or refuse to use technological tools to improve their communication to other healthcare providers causing the pharmacist precious time by calling to verify pertinent info about the medication. Most of the time pharmacists had to leave a voice message which most clinics or doctors’ offices do not return till 24-48 hours or so later. Let situations like the video you just aired be a lesson to all patients/customers who are in a hurry to pick up their medications. The pharmacy is not a fastfood joint. A lot of people don’t understand the work environment inside a pharmacy. Each time a prescription is being processed,a life hangs in the balance. When customers yell at or argue with employees for whatever complaint they have, what they don’t realize is that they are unknowingly tipping the scale, not to their favor. My advice to patients,customers and caregivers is to always BE VIGILANT AND READ BACK TO YOUR DOCTORS THE MEDICATION INFORMATION THEY WRITE DOWN ON PAPER. ASK QUESTIONS WHILE FACE-TO-FACE WITH YOUR PHYSICIANS. FINALLY, REMEMBER TO TAKE FULL ADVANTAGE OF THE FREE COUNSELLING SERVICES THAT YOUR NEIGHBORHOOD PHARMACY PROVIDES BY COMING INTO THE PHARMACY AND REQUESTING CONSULTATION WITH YOUR PHARMACIST.

I am a nationally certified pharmacy technician (CPhT) and hope to be a pharmacist in the near future. There needs to be an emphasis put on formal, standardized training of pharmacy technicians. As it stands now, with a minimum of on-the-job training, one can apply for a license in most states. Standardized, mandatory, formal education would provide needed skills and knowledge for most technicians to do their jobs properly (and weed out those who can’t hack it). I have witnessed (and corrected) potential medication errors by techs who didn’t know better or were too stupid to be doing the job. Wages for technicians also need to go up to reflect and attract dedicated, career technicians. I have no desire to stay as a tech because I cannot live on $9.75/hr forever and support a mortgage at the same time. The gap between tech wages and pharmacist wages is too extreme; pharmacists rely on techs to provide them with a correct product to do a quality assurance check before it goes to the customer. Do you want your scripts interpreted, the meds chosen off the shelf, counted, and put into the bottle by someone who is barely exceeding minimum wage? Me either. Without support from the public, the chain stores have no impetus to change their practices. Unless people speak out, nothing will change and errors will continue to be made by uneducated, undedicated techs who should not be in the profession.

most Pharmacist at Retail chain pharcists are foreign pharmacy gruaduates, most of them are on some kind visas and they are all bound to follow the corporate policies of filling 300 to 350 prescriptions in hour shifts.there is extreme pressure on individuals of foreign pharmacists they bound to do it or they lose the job as well as visas to stay in united states. so pharmcists skip counseling and also time spending on drug interactions and questioning higher authorities about the work environment. this is the life of many bigger chain pharmacists. can they answer how pharmacist are from overseas??? its just a eye wash from bigger chains about customer service by bigger publicities

For those that think trained pharmacy technicians should NEVER fill a prescription you need to look at the facts: There is a pharmacist shortage in America. With billions of prescriptions being filled in the U.S. each year, there are simply not enough pharmacists to handle filling ALL of these prescriptions without trained assistance. The wait time to get your medication would be in hours or DAYS instead of 15-30 minutes. When you are ill, do you really want to wait a day or two to get your medication? The answer is to enhance the training and compliance of all pharmacy employees, NOT to quadruple the workload of already over-burdened pharmacists.

in response to john…a pharmacist is always on duty when a pharmacy is open as required by law. a pharmacy can not open without a pharmacist present. in addition, an 6 year degree is frankly not required to “fill” a prescription. trained technicians are more than capable in typing up a script and counting out the medication. it is the duty of a pharmacist to make sure that the information is typed in correctly, that the right drug dispensed, to check for drug interactions, correct dosing, qty, etc. how can you expect one person to do it all? unless the public wanted to wait a week to receive their prescriptions, it would be impossible given the number of scripts the average pharmacy fills in a day. but i agree, something needs to give. i found that popping the lid at the check out counter has reduced a lot of errors. it gives the patient and the pharmacist an opportunity to do one final visual check together and opens up diaglogue. also, get rid of the drive thru. they are errors just waiting to happen.

Pharmacists are placed under an extreme amount of stress. I have been yelled at, threatened, have items thrown at me. In several cases I have had to call the police to have unruly customers removed.
In addition, most pharmacists are forced to work 8 to 10 hour shifts without meal breaks. Due to heavy workloads, many pharmacists do not even take restroom breaks.
And the public expects perfection under these conditions?

The entire reason pharmacies employ pharmacy technicians is to free up the pharmacists so that they can adequately perform tasks that require in-depth knowledge or training. A pharmacist is required to be present at all times and must check every prescription before it can be given to a patient — these laws are intended to prevent medication errors such as those described in the article. That the technician incorrectly transposed a prescription is unfortunate, and certainly more training could have helped prevent this from occurring, but I believe the real issue is that the pharmacist didn’t catch the mistake. I can’t speculate as to why s/he didn’t, but this highlights the problem that arises when prescriptions are treated as goods rather than the entire process being seen as a service. Whether a pharmacist spends 20 minutes discussing a medication with a patient or 5 seconds “checking” a prescription, the pharmacy makes the same amount of money. Consider how many 5-second checks could be performed in 20 minutes and it’s easy to see why some chains push quantity at the expense of quality. I would bet that if pharmacies could get reimbursed for patient services such as consultations, question research, etc, chains would again focus on patient care and not so heavily on volume.

I am a small pharmacy chain owner who supports pharmacists with high quality technicians so they have the time to counsel patients. We are being forced out of business due to low reimbursement by the government and insurance companies. This situation demands that large numbers of prescriptions be filled to survive. The answer is to increase reimbursement and enforce laws already in place that require patient counseling. If the current low reimbursement is not changed I don’t think there will be any independent or small chain pharmacies left within two years. Patients will have no choice except the large pharmacy mills.

I just want to say first that I have a lot of respect for pharmacists. My issues have never been them, but their assistants are mostly incompetent, in my opinion. I’ve heard many complaints from friends and co-workers, and I’ve had some of my own as well. I can’t understand how a pharmacist has to go to school for years to be qualified to dispense medication, but these high school kids and other unqualified people can do their job as an assistant. I’ve wondered for years when something would be done about it. I have an idea: How about the pharmacies hire more than one pharmacist for each store? They make a ridiculous amount of money. I think maybe they can afford it. Because that’s what it really boils down to, isn’t it? It’s always about the money. Money is always more important to these companies than people’s lives. Shame on them!

I think this is a very informative story that adds substance to the position that everyone needs to be an advocate in their own health care. As an RN who works with pharmacies and patients on a daily basis, I have seen the good and the not so good on both sides. Pharmacies catch errors that are made on the clinic side at times and clinics also catch errors that the pharmacies have made. To me, the bottom line is that everyone in health care needs to be doing the right job at the right time for the right person so that expensive “re-work” (fixing mistakes) and any possible harm to our patients is avoided.

I am a PTCB certified tech that has worked in one of the named chains for almost 7 years. Pharmacy errors due occur it is a fact. If there is anyone to blame it is at the corporate level. At the corporate level it seems to all be about money and wanting more. More stores, less paid staff equals higher profits for the big boys. At my store we must promise customers unreasonable time frames. It does not matter how busy we are, or that we are already one hour behind schedule. Some of the time when a customer drops off a prescription the tech is unable to get all the proper information from the patient usually because they have a phone to their ear and are in a hurry.
Many Pharmacists and techs must work long hours and with out lunches, breaks, or even bathroom breaks making them standing on their feet for 8 to 12 hours. The McDonaldisation has now spread to retail pharmacy, and is choking the life out of it. I believe that 20/20 should do an investigation regarding what goes on behind the counter to offer an explanation of pharmacy error. Then maybe we can then point the fingers and work together to fix the problem!!!

I have told our company that we have a pharmacist who makes 2 miss fills per month and they have not looked into this matter yet.I think the company is waiting until one of our patients dies before they will look into this problem we have.
sign great tech

I have been a pharmacy tech for 12 years, and I have been certified for almost 8 years. I have worked in several areas of pharmacy including hospital, long-term care, and retail. The pharmacists depend a lot on techs and if a store hires someone that has no experience in pharmacy then it is the stores responsibility to properly train the tech. They can even send them to take the classes to become certified. I know a lot of stores will pay for this, but it may not be broadcasted. There are things an untrained tech can do in the pharmacy and learn about medication. Job experience is also education! (for the comment about Pharmacists having 6-8 yrs of schooling and have the “experience” needed for the job.)
I never took a pharmacy class. I learned everything I know through experience. I was trained properly then offered a chance from the company I was employed with to take the certification test. I have the confidence of every pharmacist I have ever worked with that I am very capable of filling prescriptions and much more. I always have them check behind me and am not shy about asking questions.

Larry, I work at Rite Aid. I have been at one of the locations for 3 years now. I know every customer and love every customer. My pharmacist does stop every thing that she or he is doing to counsel. we do have floater pharmacist too, they would do they and done that too. it does not have to be a smaller independent pharmacy that would do the work better than we do. it depend on who is working in the pharmacy. And to Rite Aid, our Focus is the customer. “WITH US IS IT PERSONAL”. Just a question what would a patient that goes to a small independent do ir they need to get a script on a Sunday or a holiday, let me guess they would come to us. And how about if he ran out of the med while his pharmacy is close, he would come to us to give some tablets of no charge till his pharmacy opens for us to transfer the script.
And to all others, I am really enjoyed reading all the comments. It is funny to see how all of us go almost through the same pressure, and how little do people on the other side of the counter know what happens on our side.
I guess since by Law only pharmacy staff are allowed behind the counter, and I am sure 20/20 crew are not from this staff, so they are not able to know what actually goes on.
thank you
hitawi

Interesting article and responses. I especially liked Yvonne Soffer’s comment. She might want to re-visit her pharmacy. After reading her comments, it sounds like she’s off her meds.

I work for a major chain as a pharmacist. With the major changes that my company inplemented over the past 3 years, our error rate has been greatly reduced. Again all I see is one sided journalism. Must be a slow news week. What happen, no more news on the late Anna Nicole?

I am a retail pharmacist. I work for one of the large chain stores. I’m sure I can help shed light on some of these issues.
Note: No Pharmacist ever wants to make an error in filling a prescription. Sadly, errors do occur.
Note: The verifying pharmacist is ultimately responsible for what is dispensed to the customer.

I am forced to use a mail in rx by my ins co. After they sent the wrong strength rx for me (copd patient) it took 2 months of back and forth to get it corrected. I also was charged for both because it came in the mail. Someone needs to TAKE SOME GOOD LOOKS AT ALL HEALTH CARE. Ins has become such big business that everyone is suffering from the burden. I am alive and well no thanks to my ins co or mail in pharmacy. Ins refused to pay for correct dosage at local pharmacy. And you wonder why the people who work there get hardened or lax. MONEY IS THE BOTTOM LINE> at Walgreens, cvs, eckerds or anywhere else. Corporate greed both from companys and ins co……we the comsumers need HELP

Amy, If an auto shop were to fix a flat tire or broken window, you WOULD double check it before you left. The Pharm field is suggesting the same thing. Most pharmacies provide descriptions or pictures of the drug you should be taking. It is simply not that much trouble to look at the medicine.

Bravo 20/20!
The public has always been led to believe that their
prescription or Intravenous solutions that runs in their veins was filled by a practicing Pharmacist who went to school and earned their Doctor degree. The reality is that the Pharmacy Technician fills 95% of prescription and medication orders, including IV solutions. This
in itself would not be a sign for alarm, except that, Pharmacy Technicians, in several states, including Colorado, need have no prior educational or experience to work in the Pharmacy setting. In fact, the state of Colorado Board of Pharmacy currently does not even
recognize Pharmacy Technicians.
Personally if I were a consumer wanting all that could be done in the prevention of potential medication errors, I would question why this practice exists in which a Pharmacy Technician is filling my prescription order and not the Pharmacist of which I place my trust?
The answer is simply because there is a major shortage of Pharmacists nationwide and the roles of the Pharmacy Technician has changed to more of a dispensing function than simply one who works the cash register.

All I have to say (being a tech) is “Let me go into anyone else’s place of employment and act as impatient and self rightious as alot of the patients (usually not regulars) who want their scripts yesterday and see how far it gets me” Some of these people actually want to wait in the drive thru for us to complete their orders while they wait.. Listen up people!! It is life or death we are dealing with on a daily basis.. HAVE SOME PATIENTS!! I’m sure you waited along time at the office to see your high cost doctor.. So don’t take it out on the pharmacy emplyees when you come to us for your scripts… Yes we do multitask but that is part of our job.. Not just to fill YOUR prescription in 15 minutes or less… Most of the job is basically STRESSFUL because of the DEMAND of the consumer.. NOT TO LEAVE OUT THE EMPLOYER.. Who doesn’t think a pharmacist working 14 hours should have a break.. Oh and about PAY.. The teenagers can be hired at minimum wage to fill scripts.. Being with a chain company for 9 yrs.. I only make $8.68.. PITYFUL.. But I love my job most days..

I went to college to become a pharmacy technician and recently became certified by the ptcb. I work for a major retailer and in the first three months of employement we have changed pharmacists twice and lost 3 technicians to other jobs. The cashiers are taking on more and more responsibility because we dont have enough hands to accomodate the customers needs. Yes I have seen errors and it is devastating to see it happen. These retailers better start paying better than 8 bucks an hour, and get more mature minded help and being ptcb certified should be made a law. I am going to reach out to my senator to get a law passed so these errors can be minimized. As for the pharmacists, there are some great ones out there that have a love for their patients and want to give them the best service. Its a shame that they have to work under such stress, long hours and screaming impatient customers. I urge all technicians to get ptcb certified and urge your local government to get a law passed in your state that mandates only certified personnel can dispense meds.

I too am a Pharmacy Technician in Washington State and have sent our President of the WSPA an email and how this program has done a disservice to Pharmacists and Technicians. I feel with the emails i have read the same way and want them to come and see the profession as it really is. I have worked with the best and feel this is a shame as we who work with them see what all they do..

as a pharmacist in retail for the last 23 years, I have worked for am indepent pharmacy, CVS, Eckerd and now a supermarket chain. I can agree with everything said above, and there is plenty of blame to go around, corporations who;s CEO bonus’ rely on increased profits so what do they do cut the help that a high paying pharmacist is given and expect exemplary service with less and less help!
14 hr days with no lunch break, while the doctors work 9-5 with a 2 hr lunch…my wekkend shift once constisted of a 11 hr shift on friday, 14 hrs on staurday and 12 hours on sunday, no lunch!! I did not see the program last nite but someone told me that the patients were advised NOT to sign the log and that the fact it is used for insurance purposes as proof and rx was picked up is a LIE!!!….well i am routinely audited by insurance companies and the process includes having the last 2 yrs signature logs ready to show the auditor, why?! because part of his procedure is to check for signatures for EVERY rx he is auditing, and if it is NOT signed the money is taken back by the insurance company, of course they did not mention that on the show…i will be damned if any customer will get any meds from me without signing, no sign, no med!! I will refuse…so 20/20 there are 2 sides to every story so get your facts straight!!!and it is a FEDERAL LAW that every patient be asked at the counter if they have any questions for the pharmacist, no one is skirting that issue,,,and I understand that you did not mention PTCB or that most states now REQUIRE a tech to be certified!!!..you must have went to the George Bush school of investigation…GET THE FACTS for both sides of a story please!!!

I agree completely with Cynthia about pharmacies and pharmacists needing to TAKE RESPONSIBILITY for their errors. I am also an RN and, concerning the poor, overworked, pharmacists who never get potty breaks and have to deal with nasty people all day, I can only say, “Welcome to my hell!” Nurses “get to enjoy” all that and more and ARE held accountable for their mistakes, those of the staff they supervise, remedying those of the doctors, pharmacists, dieticians, housekeeping staff…..and on…and on… RN’s DON’T get to illegally give their patients “a few (you name the drug..INCLUDING narcotics) to get through the weekend” to shut them up without a valid prescription. (I would LOVE to see a 20/20 on THAT!) It is just hideous how pharmacists and pharmacies just get away with this incompetence. Enough with the excuses, already!

In Wisconsin, pharmacist are required to and do consult on 100%…yes 100% of prescriptions. Did I mention the patient is consulted on 100% of all prescriptions filled? Please 20/20, if you’re going to investigate, look for the positives and ways for the rest of the country to improve on their dispensing of prescriptions. This takes place at EVERY Walgreens too! Please 20/20 learn how to “investigate.” I had been a 20/20 tivo watcher, but not anymore. To catch a….sounds better!

I went to Walgreens in Lady Lake, Florida the day after your disturbing report to pick up presciptions filled. The “technician” was having a difficult time explaining Humana’s prescription coverage to an elderly man in line in front of me. When my turn came, I understood why. Her nametag stated she was a Walgreen’s certified photo specialist!

I am a Certified Pharmacy Technician in the State of Washington. Technicians in the state I live and work in must be at least 18 years old and have completed a formalized State Board of Pharmacy accredited training program in order to be licensed to perform non discretionary duties in the pharmacy. This type of sensational “investigative” reporting does speak volumes about way we practice pharmacy in the United States both from the professional side and the patient/customer perspective.
I would be excited to see some comments logged from customers willing to share their stories about how they contribute to the frustration felt by technician’s every day. Probably won’t happen… Contrary to popular belief we DO NOT come to the counter to tell you your insurance would not pay for your prescription just to “make your day horrible”. Trust me it makes doing our job just a bad.
AND Leave the 16 year old technicians alone! What states are we talking ablut here? I am disappointed in 20/20 that they did not interview any of the CEO’s that ultimately call the shots. Were they “unavailable for comment”. How unfortunate. You have effectively caused a sensationalized media event that will end up causing the Pharmacy Associations across the country to spend inordinate amounts of time and energy defending a profession that has as its purpose, “to serve the public with patient centered care” when their efforts should only be concerned with that same care.

First off my condolences to the families affected by these errors. My heart goes out to you. With that said I feel that the 20/20 piece was very one sided. It’s been pointed out in many comments here that pharmacists are making interventions everyday to prevent errors and that is so true.
Here are my feelings:
1.)I think all of these patients who come in and bitch at the pharmacist and the techs because they may have to wait a half hour for their script should watch the 20/20 piece so then maybe it will give them some perspective of why we shouldn’t be treatd like a fast food restaraunt.
2.) The companies (Wal-Greens, CVS, etc) may try and say that they care about the patient. That is BS! The bottom line (profit) is what they care about.
Techs are under paid, stores are understaffed. The corporations use # of scripts filled per hour as a measuring stick to determine how many tech hours a pharmacy will get (it is usually like 1 hour for every 10 perscriptions). This does not take into account time for answering phones, ringing up customers who may have purchased other non-pharmacy items, insurance issues, and counseling of patients.
The environment sucks in a retail pharmacy. Pharmacists are on their feet all day, phones ringing nonstop, people yelling about having to wait for their script, no lunch break so you have to eat while you work, and god forbid you need to hit the restroom.

I have been a pharmacy technician for over four years. I have been certified for almost two. I am now a pharmacy student. First and for most it was, and in every case is always, the pharmacists responsibility to catch the medication errors. Pharmacists I have talked to on this matter agree with me completely on this. Pharmacists go to school for 6 years 4 of which are Pharmacy school. If it were not for technicians there would be far more errors than there are now. There are some pharmacies in my area that do over 300 prescriptions a day with just one pharmacist.
In some states the law is two uncertified technicians per pharmacist. That is very much needed in any pharmacy setting. A good pharmacist would have caught any errors that the technician might have made.
Patients themselves also need to be responsible for their own medication as well. Patients need to know the strength and name of the medication that they are on, as well as what it is for. If they cannot remember their medications then they need to have them written down to refer to them when needed. This would also help fatal errors from happening. If a patient knows what medication they are on and thinks it looks different than before….DONT TAKE IT and call your pharmacist for advise.
Also I hope everyone now knows that it takes longer than 10 minutes to fill prescriptions because unlike popular belief we just dont throw pills in a bottle and slap a lable on it. Which is a comment that is made everyday!

As a pharmacist, I did feel the report was one-sided and did not focus on some of the truly life-saving interventions pharmacist make. However, it is a real eye-opener to us a profession and to our employers that the practices the public expects of us are not in play as required by our profession and state regulatory boards. I am also just amazed at my colleagues’ comments on the patient should take responsilibilty. They are not the drug experts, we are! As medical professionals we ASSUME the lay public would know what to do and should not! I don’t a plumber come over and ask a million questions how to fix my toilet….I just want it fixed with out a problem. Same with most patients…they want their medical conditions treated without harm. For as good as drugs are to treat and cure disease, every pharmacist surely remembers lectures in school about the fine line between efficacy and toxicity. Drugs are recognized by our bodies as “toxins”…and if taken incorrectly or with contraindications or other drugs, foods, and herbal supplements, tragic outcomes can and do result.
Instead of whining about the reality of the feature, I think pharmacists should do some self reflection. Work at a pace that you feel provides safety and if the employers don’t like it, quit. As we all know, we can walk and find another $100,000 job tomorrow. Simple economics: supply and demand, and with united demands on more pharmacist versus technicians we can make a difference.

Yep, retail pharmacists are asked to perform an impossible job…they have to be 100% right all the time (including catching doctors’ mistakes), dealing with no breaks, illegible scripts, medicaid and insurance issues, butt-insky managers, and cranky customers (not to mention being subjected to armed robbery).
Yep, there is a pharmacist shortage. (wonder why???)
Yep, I’m a pharmacist. I COULD make good money as a retail pharmacist.
Nope. I don’t. It’s not worth it, for all the reasons described above.
I’d like to correct one thing, tho. The techs don’t “dispense” prescriptions. They can put the pills in the bottle, but that’s not “dispensing.” The pharmacist whose initials appear on the label “dispensed” it, whether or not he or she actually touched the bottle or its contents.

I don’t know about other pharmacies but the log that you sign at my pharmacy is in no way related to patient rights…. it is an ins. log showing your medication was picked up….

I have been a pharmacist for 5 years, i work in a hospital full time and for CVS part-time. IT is amazing how the same issues occur all over the country. We are treated as fast food joints, patients want the meds as fast as possible, putting pressure on workers including tech and ringers make workers angry, nervous, etc,, its just human nature to respond, and that’s when potiential errors can occur. Although i have learned to block out difficult customers and focus on whats at hand. Patients should check everyone including doctors, i cant tell you how many times i have caught prescription errors at CVS, and i dont even want to get into what happens in hospitals! Iam sure many of you know how some physicians prescribe antibiotics?Patients must ask questions, they must know what they are taking especially when they leave their doctors office. Everyone makes errors, it impossible to say that no one makes errors, we must check each other, doctors, nurses, pharmacists, tech’s – thats what healtcare is all about. I think retail will suffer in the next 10 years, pharamcists cannot work the way retail is set up now, if we didnt have to deal with insurance problems, like hospitals, retail would be a different world, but we all know that will never go away! Let just say drive-through is the down fall of our profession in retail!! we are treated nothing more than Mcdonalds when patients drive up, how can you discuss pharmacy issues over a microphone of through a window? iam lucky enough in NY many stores do not have drive up windows, i know many other places in the country do. I think they should be banned from ALL pharmacies!!

This type of one sided journalism is doing much more of a disservice to patients and consumers than providing them with accurate and trustworthy information. You should go on air and show the positives and make a formal apology.

Cecil- that is an excellent idea. Sometimes the dose on the pill is printed so small or faintly many people can’t read it. So they can’t check strengthes.
We can come with other ways of child proofing. Those bottles are horrible and my kids can open them easier than I can.
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The paper I’ve been asked to sign at the phamacy counter has to do with HIPPA and to show the med was picked up by who. This helps catch errors, but after the fact when somone has time to enter the codes and check against inventory. The clipboard really should have a cover sheet, considering HIPPA but it doesn’t.
Sometimes I’m asked if I have Q’s, not always. About half the time I am asked there is a heavy implication that they really don’t want you to and they don’t have time.
I must live in a polite area because I have never seen anyone yelling or being huffy at the pharmacy. Just sitting in chairs waiting. Most people drop of or have it called in and come pick it up later on the home from work. I give 24 hours to fill our scripts so they aren’t rushed, hopefully. The people being jerky are probably being jerky to everyone else too. I doubt they singled the pharmacy out for their jerkiness. We all get the joy of dealing with them.

I am a pharmacy technician for a big chain store. i am certified which was required by my company and any cost concerning the certification is provided by my company. while there is a need for patient care there is a demand by the customers for unrealistic wait times in the pharmacy. it is not a fast food restaurant it is a place of health care. some customers when asked to come back in 15 minutes they yell and get upset that it could not be sooner. each script needs its own attention and when customers dont understand that it can lead to errors and stress on the pharmacy staff. i see someone else mentioned the drive thru. that again is another distraction for the staff with the window buzzing and the customers walking up to the window banging on it and the customers inside screaming. no one knows the stress and aggrivation until they are behind that counter!! Not for nothing they would not treat their doctors the way they treat their pharmacists.

This story was an appalling example of investigation and reporting. Using a few (admittedly devastating) examples of mistakes is misleading, millions of prescriptions are filled correctly. Mistakes happen in every field, and placing the blame on the technicians and pharmacists is wrong. They’re doing their job, and never intentionally setting out to hurt their patients. What does it matter if a technician worked at a fast-food job previously, I bet there’s people on the crack-team at 20/20 that worked jobs in high school to (and I bet some of them even were 16 before!). That doesn’t matter, it doesn’t make them incompetent.
The story implied that the pharmacy chains are to blame by expanding too quickly, and they need to hire more pharmacists. Our country is in a shortage of pharmacists, because of its insatiable appetite for drugs. If drugs were any less convenient to acquire, there would be public outrage and your story would, instead, be about why we need more pharmacies, and look at the devastating health problems caused by not being able to buy drugs.

I am a CPhT at a retail pharmacy. I do love my job, what i do is important. I worked hard to become certified. Our job isnt simply filling vials. The above statements somewhat explain the conditions we work under, not always pretty. However people are impatient. No, we cannot just ‘go get the medicine off the shelf’ and give it to you. No matter what the med is, it requires the same attention every other script gets. We WANT to get your meds asap to you. We know you need it, we know your in pain… but so are the other 300 people who just called in, dropped off or got faxed a new script in the last half hour! WE have to make sure you script is correct, your doctor is not perfect, we are not perfect, the nasty RNs who THINK their doctors, are not perfect. We do however try to work together as your TOTAL HEALTH CARE PROVIDERS to make you better. Have no meds left and no refills but you want them now? We have to get the ok from your dr! This can take 2 days to get back! Is it friday at 6 pm? You probably wont get your ok till mon or tues. You should have been prepared and called about the medicine YOU MUST TAKE EVERYDAY, yesterday for that approval! Take responsibility for yourself, people. Stop bitching at us! We are trying the best we can but you want it faster..faster… faster!! And the drive thru is helpful for those who have trouble getting around.. not for you lazy impatient people who think its a fast food drive thru. Sometimes we have to deal with insurance or a drug interaction in the drive, it may take a while but we would give you the exact same attention if you needed it. So have some patients with your local pharmacy, we are there to HELP YOU!

I applaude your story, and I work for one of the big chain Pharmacies named. I was hired as a Pharmacy technician because I was willing to work for the pay they offered. The mistakes I’ve seen made, are also caused by the fact that a shortage of Pharmasists means that our two registered pharmasists have to work 12 hour shifts, becauses the sore if open for 12 hours most days and 8 hours on weekends. When one of our Pharmasists got so sick he couldn’t even remain on his feet, the other pharmasist had to be called in to work seven days a week until the ill pharmasist was able to come back to work.
Yesterday we were e-mailed and told to pull all Zelnorm off the shelves, no reason why, just told to do it. Even the Pharmasists were unaware of the reason. I did a web search to learn the reason for the American recall. However, no mention of the patiests for whom I’ve filled Zelnorm scripts in the last week has been mentioned. Since I’ve asked what we were going to do, and no one at the store level has any idea. The District Manager will e-mail Corporate for instructions.
The corporate mentality of profit and listing things for the employee’s to ‘sell’ seems to have out stripped the emphasis on making sure all prescriptions are filled right!

A couple of thoughts.
1)Counseling is important. Very. If you feel that you aren’t getting the offer, ask. If you aren’t answered in a way you like, go to a new pharmacy to a pharmacist who cares. I love getting to know the customers who ask questions. They are usually the ones who get better in their disease states because they care. Pharmacists get jaded over time, me included. No one wants to talk to you, they want you to shut up and give you their pills. You feel bad at night for thinking that way but it’s been reinforced over years of experience. You come out of school wanting to talk to everyone, then you get cussed out by not only the person you talk to, but others who see you aren’t at your computer screen. I mean thats exactly why I spent 7 years of my life to get Dr. in front of my name, so I could get cussed back into my little computer space. I miss talking to patients, but very few ever say yes they want to talk.
2)Why is it that “1-hour photo” never gets questioned, but “20 minute prescriptions” takes too long????

This broadcast is concerning…. I have a quick question, why did the pediatrician write for a tablet to be dispensed to a 7 month old infant? An oral phenobarbital solution would have prevented this error. Why is that doctor not held accountable for his role in the error>

It is a wonderful problem facing Americans. With so much more demand placed on an already overburdened health-care system it is little surprise that mistakes can be found. Granted that some mistakes may be blatent, I have worked in pharmacy for more than 7 years and yet to find a pharmacist or technician who was less than anxiously interested in seeking our patients best interest. Oftentimes their time and extra efforts to seek solutions to our customers go unheralded and unappreciated. How many times a day I as a pharmacist go above what would be considered my “duty” to save a customer money, headache, time, concern, worry, and also then give answers, help, a listening ear, good cheer, extra help, donations, calling the insurance company for them, billing medicare, accepting assignment, giving some meds to help “get buy” until the doctor gives refill OK’s, offer drug consulting, disease state modifications, pharmacotherapy recommendations, interaction checks. These are above and beyond all the rigorous demands of doctors, nurses, customers, employees, bosses, insurance companies, this is all when we as pharmacy personel feel good, great, or catch the miserable cold every customer brings in their prescription or seek help with over-the-counter remedies. Granted we are in a unique position to seek the best interest in assuring accurate medication for our customers. Every pharmacy personel I remember working with was keenly interested in that very fact. Additionally, if in the poor event there ever was a mistake made, that shook up the pharmacist or technician terribly. Not one pharmacist did I ever know who was arrogant, rude, uncaring, or without regard to the best care of the patient, whether or not we achieved great accuracy or misfilled. Pharmacist’s are not the embodiment of perfection. Human as you we carry with us a love of life and a desire to protect life, cure or prevent disease, protect patient privacy, encourage compliance, ease burdens, lift patients spirits and if possible provide a living while doing all of this. Please, recognize pharmacists are people like you, who go home to their families and friends everyday and then in the morning put on their coat saying they are a pharmacy professionals. No matter the size of a drug store, people work in it. Yes there are corporate people who are bean counters who may believe otherwise, whose interest is not in the patients happiness, but all in all pharmacists and technicians are caring people whose best and foremost interest is in helping people like you and me be healthy and happy, so we all can enjoy our families and our lives to the fullest.

As a Doctor of Pharmacy student weeks away from graduation, I find your portrayal of the profession I am dedicating my life to pursuing incredibly one-sided and short-sighted. Not only did you include misleading information in your report, your “investigation” never reveals exactly what you feel constitutes a prescription error. Some issues in your report: 1. Under federal law (OBRA-90), the only patients I am legally required to provide consultation to are Medicaid patients with new prescriptions. Fortunately, I live in a state where the state law requires that I counsel ALL patients, Medicaid, insured and uninsured on EVERY prescription they pick up, both new AND refill. While this system catches many potential problems, including people taking medications incorrectly and potential drug interactions, I can’t even count the number of complaints I have heard from patients regarding the fact that they have to wait for the pharmacist. I often hear, “I’ve been taking this for years – I don’t have any questions” and yet when asked simply how they feel the medication has been working, I hear, “well, I don’t know.” If you are picking up a prescription, please pay attention to what the pharmacist is telling you! That cell phone call can wait – this is your health, so take an active interest! Pay attention to the appearance of your medication and if something doesn’t look right, call or stop in and ask. Pharmacists want you to be safe while taking medications that can be potentially life-saving and are available for questions – just ask! 2. The signature you are asked for at the register really is for proof of your receipt of HIPAA information or proof of purchase for your insurance. While many states do have a waiver for consultation, generally the offer to counsel must always be made. So when you hear, “Do you have any questions for the pharmacist?” and you do, say yes. If you say no, you have just declined consultation. 3. Pharmacy technicians serve this profession in more ways than I can name. They deserve more respect and better treatment than they got from your story and than they get from patients every day. Portraying them as uneducated high school students does a disservice to the highly trained and nationally certified technicians that work in pharmacies nationwide. Without pharmacy technicians, the seven years I just spent in school would guarantee me a job doing nothing more than counting, licking and sticking all day long and would leave me no time for the counseling your report so desperately desires. So please, when you stop into your pharmacy, pay attention to what the staff really does for you. Then, thank them. In closing, here are a few tips for people to improve their pharmacy experience:
1. Know your medications, know your pharmacist! – I do my best to make sure you know if a prescription has changed or if the medication looks different, but you can help if you know what you’re used to taking. Also, fill all your prescriptions at one pharamcy. That way, I can check your profile for potential drug interactions and know I am seeing everything. Remember, if I don’t know you’re taking it, I can’t make sure you are safe.
2. Know your insurance. The pharmacy did not set the price on your prescription, your insurance company did. If you’ve got an issue with the co-pay or price, take it up with them – don’t take it out on the pharmacy staff.
3. If you’ve got a pressing appointment, please just drop off your prescription and pick it up later. That way both it and you can get the attention you deserve, when you have more time.
4. Please pay attention to the number of refills you have remaining (printed on your bottle, usually on the lower left). If you come in and I need to contact your doctor, you WILL be waiting until I hear back. So save yourself the trip and call in advance when you see you are out of refills. Then I can have your renewal waiting for you when you do come in (at least 24 hours later).
5. Ask me when you have questions about your prescriptions or over-the-counter items. I am more than happy to help and will do my best to answer your questions. If I look busy, still ask! Helping patients is what I went to school for and honestly makes my day better.
6. Do me the courtesy of getting off your cell phone when you are picking up or dropping off your prescription. Do you have phone conversations during your doctor’s appointment?
7. If you want to learn more about how prescriptions are filled, ask at your local pharmacy. Discover how much education and training your pharmacy staff has and how much knowledge they have to share.

I wish that 20/20 would follow up this story by putting a camera in a busy pharmacy. I bet if your insurance had to ok that big mac you’re picking up they would have a problem too. This is not fast food people. I recently had to go to URGENT CARE for an injury and the sign said “your wait time is 2.5 hours” hmmm URGENT CARE. That’s when I decided I have to stop beating myself up to get people their rx’s in 15 minutes. We are under staffed and under paid but we do the best that we can because we do not like problems either. It makes it hard for the pharmacy staff as well. This is health care! Where else can you go for treatment in 15 minutes? I really like my customers
and have empathy for them but we have to do all the steps to get the right drug for you and deal with your insurance and drug interactions etc. I can’t tell you how many times I have had people ask me “how can you possibly read this” I don’t think that you want us to guess do you? So please try to understand and go do some errands and give us the time to fill your rx the way it is supposed to get you better. I am a cerified pharmacy technician and I have to do continuing education every year and I take pride in what I know, so please try to look at that side of it.

Pharmacists make 100,000+ a year and are under paid for the abuse they take from the uneducated public aid people bringing in their prescriptions at cost the state hundreds of dollars and they pay a 1 dollar copay or no copay.

Very informative piece of one-sided sensationalism called investigational journalism. And it’s all absolutely true. It has been this way for the chains for years. Why do Pharmacists allow this to happen? It is the Pharmacist who is responsible for every Rx dispensed regrardless of who types the label or fills the bottle. So let’s not worry about the underage underpaid pharmacy technician. The final check is that of the Pharmacist. The Rx to the Label to the drug to the bottle.
So what are we going to do about this? This has been going on for decades as the chains have put out of business all the mom and pop pharmacies who actually spent time and cared for their patients.
Tha almighty dollar wins again. Chains want to make the money. Pharmacists want to earn it. The insurance companies don’t want to pay for medications. The chains cut corners by decreasing staffing. The chains lobby for increased Pharmacist to Technician ratios so more work can be done and expenses be kept low.
Pharmacists leave the chains in search of beter working professional conditions. Things only get worse. Let the government step in and require Pharmacists to only fill a maximum number of Rxs per shift. Heck the lobbyists for the chains will stop that. But the chains will fight to get a Tech check Tech program allowed.
Pharmacists are to blame as we let this happen to our profession.

I am a CPhT who works for a big name pharmacy. In viewing your report I came up with a few opinions of my own. Yes, it is the sole responsability of the pharmacist to make sure that the medication was correct before leaving his pharmacy. In the pharmacy that I work in, we use a system that checks the bottle before pouring it out to ensure we picked up the correct medication. As far as your statement that techs are 16 and untrained, I have the student loans & license to proof otherwise.
Your report also targeted in my opinion an employee who didn’t like the corprate way of dispensing medications. As his view is well noted, i know plenty of pharmacists who can keep up with corprate’s way without jeopardizing the quality of the patients needs. He needs to open his own small mom & pop pharmacy so he can do things his way. My guess is he’ll be out of buisness in less then a year.
I thought 20/20 could have done better in investigating its story by getting more facts from other resources then just a discruntal empolyee and a womens horror story brought on by a terrable error.

I have worked as a registered pharmacist for 24 years. All of my fellow pharmacists could list COUNTLESS times we have SAVED the patient by checking with the prescriber. I very rarely get thanked by the prescriber or patient. Your story is absolutely insane as an accurate representation of pharmacy. As usual, ABC presents the most negative situation hoping to improve your ratings.
I would welcome cameras in all pharmacies. Maybe that would get some attention as to how many prescriptions we fill correctly. How about the NUMEROUS calls we get every day asking…will my xanax,
hydrocodone, oxycodone go thru yet???? Until the public demands better conditions for all pharmacy employees, these situations will only get worse. I bet ABC news would love to cover the story if every pharmacist in America called in sick just one day! The entire medication distribution system would shut down. Think about that the next time you are upset it takes “about 15 minutes” to fill your child or her grandparents medication.

To Karen:
Quote:”I agree completely with Cynthia about pharmacies and pharmacists needing to TAKE RESPONSIBILITY for their errors. I am also an RN and, concerning the poor, overworked, pharmacists who never get potty breaks and have to deal with nasty people all day, I can only say, “Welcome to my hell!” Nurses “get to enjoy” all that and more and ARE held accountable for their mistakes, those of the staff they supervise, remedying those of the doctors, pharmacists, dieticians, housekeeping staff…..and on…and on… RN’s DON’T get to illegally give their patients “a few (you name the drug..INCLUDING narcotics) to get through the weekend” to shut them up without a valid prescription. (I would LOVE to see a 20/20 on THAT!) It is just hideous how pharmacists and pharmacies just get away with this incompetence. Enough with the excuses, already!”
My sister is a nurse, my neice is in nursing school, my ex gf is a nurse. i have worked in more than one 900 bed Ivy League teaching hospitals. There is no amount of money that would convince me to do that job. That said.. you seem to be in the minute minority of nurses I wouldn’t let near my dog, let alone a family member. You know why you wouldn’t give a patient med “to get them through the weekend”? Because you can’t. Thats the pharmacists job. I DO NOT give out controlled substances. However I was taught in pharmacy school that the abrupt discontinuation of beta blocker and many other medications would be BAD for a patients health. While quasi legal at certain times and in certain states, I never feared a visit from the Board of Pharmacy or a lawyer questioning the decision to give a patient three (3) atenolol pills or a couple lisinopril tablets so that they would not run out of medication while waiting on full refill authorizations from the equally overworked office or clinic
My professional life would be a living hell without the excellen techs I work with. They are the ones there every day. They know these patients better than I do. They know the fakes and seekers and doctor shoppers in town. I dread Sunday mornings because that is the one morning I do not have a tech. And I then have to “work at my worst”. Every single step is mine. It’s inefficient and takes longer. Not that I am not confident in my own abilities but two sets of eyes seeing the same thing is never bad.

I have been a chain store pharmacist and I am currently an independent pharmacist. One issue that this article did not address is the issue of REIMBURSING THE PHARMACIST FOR TIME. Doctors and lawyers get paid for time. If the pharmacist is not being reimbursed for TIME, then this issue will only become worse.

I am extremely disappointed in 20/20′s investigation. I am a pharmacist, and I spend many hours during the day trying to reach unavailable doctors concerning illegible, incorrect, and incomplete prescriptions. Many times they have their secretaries (many without high school diplomas) call in their prescriptions. They often mispronounce the medication or even phonetically pronounce sig. abbreviations. My favorite is when they say “bid” instead of “b.i.d.” (which means twice a day). Scripts are often dosed wrong by doctors. Time after time I get prescriptions for Wellbutrin XL “1 twice a day” when it is dosed once a day. The Wellbutrin SR is dosed twice a day. Sometimes they will even write for Wellbutrin SL, which does not even exist. With pushy customers, insurance problems, poor communication from doctor to nurse to (sometimes secretary) to the pharmacist messages can come out incorrect. There are guidelines now requiring doctors to print prescriptions but you do not see 20/20 investigating this. The solution is very clear 20/20. Look at the following:
1. Pass laws requiring doctors to type in prescriptions by computer and send the prescriptions electronically or fax directly to the pharmacist. This reduces the amount of people relaying the prescription. Absolutely no handwritten prescriptions!
2. Pass laws that require the minimum amount of time for a rx to be processed and filled to be 20 minutes unless of course it fits into an emergency situation. This reduces the pressure pharmacists receive from some customers to have their prescriptions yesterday.
3. Pass laws requiring that all pharmacists must have a minimum 30 minute lunch break. What do you expect will happen when a person’s blood glucose levels drop due to not eating?
This situation is more complex. The blame is on everyone involved in the prescription process – the medical doctor’s office, the impatient public, as well as the pharmacy corporations. That is why you need to get people to pressure their representatives regarding these issues, so that they can pass appropriate laws with enforcement.
Thank You and I hope this is helpful insight.

I agree with some of the statements above in regards to Pharmacists not offering counseling for Rx’s. I am a pharmacist but I don’t work in a retail chain pharmacy – I work in home care. I have picked up my Rx’s from my local chain without being asked if I needed counseling and just told to sign. I have confronted the pharmacist about the responsibility that they have to offer counseling, since it is the law and part of our policy at work as well. I don’t condone this ‘sign for your Rx’ behavior, but you couldn’t pay me a million dollars a year to do what a chain pharmacist does for a living. Patients continue to yell and scream at the staff when the pharmacist tells them it will be about 20 minutes for their Rx and management is always on the side of the patient. Quotas, no lunch ( or bathroom breaks! ) and lack of staff make for a recipe for disaster! Let’s look at the CEO’s of these chains to make some much needed changes and you will see most of these problems disappear!

I agree, patients reserve the right to know if the medication they suppose to take is safe or not. there should be created a standard policy to reserve the right of a patient to excerise checks for medication verification through desired approach to identify a pill’s content and visible indicator to propceed or disallow the use of the product or pills.

Last 2 prescriptions from Walgreens – ordered 30 rec’d. 28, ordered 90 rec’d. 87. I guess I’m lucky that was the only error.

To Nick:
I couldn’t have said it better myself. I think that report must have been done in the dark ages before our new technology. Also, how are we supposed to know if that aspirin the customer is purchasing is for them or someone else??
Leah, CPhT

I watched this program the other day, and I was appalled at all of the information that 20/20 left out. I am a pharmacy tech at a major chain, and I am 18 years old. It is a New Jersey law that techs be at least 18 years old, and I don’t work with one person who hasn’t graduated high school with a diploma, as have all of the other techs I work with. I am also very well trained and a pharmacy student at a well respected university. We fill approximatley 500 scripts per day, and there is always a pharmacist or two working during pharmacy hours, and these pharmacists are very overworked. They work 10-12 hour shifts without taking a single break or sitting down, and getting a chance to eat a meal is a luxury.
The job of a pharmacy tech is a very hard one, and we are very very underpaid. At this time I am only making $8.00 an hour. This small amount of money do what a tech does. We are expected to type in prescriptions (while trying to read the doctor’s scribble), scan the script into the computer system, file the hardcopy prescription correctly, find the medication, print the label (which does have a description of the correct pill on it), scan the barcode on the bottle to make sure it is the right medication, acknowledge and fix any insurance problems (which occur in about 50% of prescriptions), call the insurance company if the problem can not be fixed by the tech (this usually means being put on hold for a minimum of 10 minutes), count the pills, bottle them using the correct cap, and give them to the pharmacist.
The pharmacist then scans the barcode on the bottle and a screen comes up showing the scanned original script, a picture of the correct pill and all of the customer information. The pharmacist has to verify that all of the information is correct (this includes multiple things – right patient, right drug, right drug strength, right quantity, right directions, right refills, right doctor, etc. and also checking for potential drug interactions). This process is completed hundreds of times per day.
This process is different for a narcotic prescription. Only the pharmacist is allowed to fill these scripts. These medications are kept in a safe, and customers always want to wait for them. The pharmacist must fill out a narcotic book for each script. This process takes a long time, and customers don’t realize this.
Doctors make more mistakes than the average patient would expect. I cannot tell you how many prescriptions I have received that have a medication or a strength that doesn’t even exist. Doctors put refills on narcotic scripts, which is legally not allowed, just to name a couple of the common mistakes on the physician’s end. When the pharmacy attampts to call the doctor’s office, we never talk to the doctor, only a nurse who will ask the pharmacist what they recommend to give the patient, including the strength and the sig code. Isn’t this the doctor’s job?
All of this is expected to be done in under 15 minutes by the customer. If it is not, boy do we hear about it.
A tech then has to ring them up, and not only the prescription but a cartful of front store items. The customer will be talking on their cell phone, complaining about their copay and make us double check it, although the cost is set by the incurance company.
Another HUGE mistake made by 20/20, the log book at the register. This is NOT a waiver of your right to counselling. That is rediculous. You are signing that you have no questions for the pharmacist about your prescription. If the customer would actually read what they sign, they would know this. If you ask for counseling, you will always get it. If you have spoken to the pharmacist, you sign a different box in the book stating that you have.
Throughout the past week I have gotten in countless arguments with misinformed customers about the log books. Paitents now think that pharmacies are trying to pull a fast one on them, when they actually are not. The logbook also helps if we cannot find a script in the bin when a customer comes to the register. Many times a customer has gotten livid with me because I couldn’t find the prescription when their husband or wife picked up the script the day before, and they didn’t even know. We look in the log book and there is their signature. We spend so much time trying to please the customer and get little praise in return. We almost NEVER get an apology.
Through all of this, I still love my job. I feel that I am a vital part of the pharmacy and that the pharmacists respect me and need me to be there. I know that I could easily walk over to a fast food restaurant and get paid more, but I stay because I want to help the customers. There is no better feeling than when a customer comes in and truly values the service we provide to them. We have customers that will yell, scream and curse at us and make fools of themselves, and there are customers that are so greatful that they bring us home cooked dinners throughout the week. These are the customers I love to serve. Maybe if more people realize how much effort is put info filling their prescriptions they would have a greater respect for us.
I am very disappointed in this “investigation” and I think that 20/20 needs to do an investigation on the other side of this problem, the doctors, insurance companies and the misinformed customers.

I was very upset about your program on pharmacy. i am a pharmacy tech. i have been since i was 16 years old. your program blamed pharmacy tech. for all of the mistakes in the pharmacy. you who have to Pharmacists who have to double check the scripts before they go out of the pharmacy. another thing that made me very angry is that we are not deciving the customer in anyway when they pick up the script most techs ask if they have any questions for the pharmacists. most patients say no. i dont think you guys did your job very good. it seems to me that you have no clue how a pharmacy is ran!

As a pharmacist, I am very offended by the comment made by Karen regarding us giving patients a few pills for the weekdend “to shut them up”. The reason we need to do this is because we are unable to reach a physician to refill a prescription, as doctors are seldom available on weekends. As a nurse, Karen should realise that it might be dangerous for patients to go off their medication for a few days. I have been yelled at by a doctor because I bothered him during his dinner to ask for a refill on his patient’s insulin. So, I guess Karen would rather see someone spend the weekend in pain or have a stroke because they didn’t pay attention and ran out of refills. Then 20/20 can blame the pharmacist for not giving them any medication.
I also think 20/20 should do a companion piece entitled “Who’s really working in you doctor’s office?” While the company I work for prohibits technicians from taking new prescriptions over the phone, I have received more than one call from office staff who can’t even pronunce the name of the medication, much less interpret the directions for use. Then there are the office staff (nurses, I hope)who approve refills without even checking a patient’s chart. Once when I asked for a doctor to call me back about a question, the nurse informed me that he probably wouldn’t, because “that’s what nurses are for”. If doctors need all this help to do do their jobs, why are we pharmacists expected to do everything ourselves?

While i beleive that the information you were TRYING to portray to the public may have been beneficial, i do see several “ERRORS” that your reporters made as well. So should we assume that everything we hear from the media is contaminated. No. You portrayed prescription errors as being a large portion of the pharmacy world. I work for the Walgreens chain and have for years. I have been in pharmacy for 10 years, and i agree that while errors are horrible, they do sometimes happen. Just as things happen that are unfortunate to everyones jobs at some time in their career. I believe that you “targeted” Walgreens! You did not even it out with any other chain and customers are concerned that CVS, WAL-MART, PUBLIX, RITE AIDE ect are not prone to the errors! YOU misdirected YOUR information! Also, with the ASA (aspirin for you non-intellectual reporters) and Warfarin, you asked sales clerks NOT the pharmacist! Techs do not atend school and therefore are unaware of many of the reactions. However, when you go to WAL-MART and buy ciggarettes does the clerk ask if they are for you? NO! They ASSUME that if you are buying them that they must be for someone!
Also for you customers that believe a prescription being filled is equivalent to to the McDonalds drive through, maybe if you would be patient, we would be able to meet all of the demands as well as correct filling and verifying processes!
ABC YOU misconstrued information about the pharmacy profession and your “investigation” was bias at the LEAST! It is my opinion that ABC either needs to do another investigation and look at ALL the factors or offer a public apology to the Pharmacists that work hard to provide healthcare to the public!
YOU ARE ALSO TO BLAME FOR MISINFORMING THE PUBLIC! So what should we think about your profession?

Watching this 20/20 investigation, my blood began to boil. As a 6th year PharmD candidate, I await graduation in less than 7 weeks. I have had the opportunity to work in retail pharmacy and I wonder. . .did you take the time to videotape the pharmacy at 5:30 pm when 35 people have lined up to YELL at the pharmacist and staff for not being quick enough? I have personally stopped errors from occuring, all while being on the phone for hours with YOUR insurance companies and having you scream at me over the phone why your copay went up one dollar. I believe that 20/20 owes the pharmacists of this country to right to show another side to this story. Yes, I agree that no pharmaceutical error is acceptable, but lets face it. We are human too. It will happen. While respecting this opinion, maybe your program should also show how many lives are saved each year by pharmacists. Or how absolutely horrible customers can be to a pharmacy staff. I do not want to graduate in less than two months and have to go to a work environment filled with scorn for me, when I have yet to make an error. So please do us a favor, and be better journalists.

Although some of the “facts” are wrong in these set of stories and is a bit one-sided, I think in the end, it will cause some debate for change. Humans will make errors. It’s how do we prevent errors is the question. One of the big factors as you can see from people experienced in the field is the lack of help. There simply isn’t enough pharmacists in the US to fill for the increasing number of prescriptions sold. Not only that, but corporate chain stores won’t provide enough staffing hours for pharmacists at these stores if they are available. Too many times a pharmacist is left by themselves. I feel at least two pharmacists should be present nearly all the time except during down times (which is vastly different from store to store). Although I’m not sure if there are enough pharmacists available for this. Technicians should have more than just a high school diploma or GED. Now if they are only going to get paid $8/hr, then nobody will want to be a tech. Techs need higher wages because if someone is going to be more than just a high school graduate and has taken the time to get board certified, I feel they should be paid in the $15+/hour range. I feel the good techs are underappreciated and this would give more incentive for quality people to become technicians. Good technicians are absolutely vital for a retail store (or hospital pharmacy) to run smoothly as they are doing most of the busy work that can easily cause a mistake. If a pharmacist has a bad tech that makes a mistake 1 out of 5 prescriptions, then it’s much more difficult to detect those errors. Plus good techs allow more time for pharmacists to do what they went to school for, to counsel and talk to patients and check for drug-drug/drug-disease interactions. All retail stores should allow for lunch breaks (at least a half hour). Breaks reduce stress which can prevent mental lapses. The large chain pharmacies need to realize this and try to do everything possible to make it about patient safety first and not about money. I’m living in a fantasy world though if I believe this to come true.

I thought your broadcast was misleading and put blame on individual pharmacists. I could not believe that 20/20 targeted the pharmacist who gave the wrong medicine to the girl. Do you people not realize that this man is haunted by this, and yet ABC let their cameras ambush him? It was not his fault, I am sure he is intelligent and competent. The fact is, he is human and works for a horrible system, which is the medical system. The system as a whole needs to be blamed for this incidence not the individual. I wish ABC would put a hidden camera on a pharmacist who fills, by him or herself 50 prescriptions an hour. Imagine trying to counsel, decipher doctors handwriting, answer 20 calls an hour, not be able to eat, sit or use the rest room and still be 99.9% accurate! NOW THAT’S TV!

As a pharmacist for 20 years, it has always amazed me how some patients will spend 5 hours in a doctors office, yet expect their rx’s filled in 15 minutes. Keep in mind that the physicians schedule these patients by appointment, pharmacists serve their patients as they walk thru the door. I work in and own an independent pharmacy. The amount of work we do could not be done without our trained and certified technicians. We are a team. The pharmacist is the only person that can check and release a prescription to the patient. We encourage our patients to look at and ask questions about their meds. It it looks different than last time, ask to speak to the pharmacist. It is preferable to correct an error on the front end than to treat the results on the back end. This specific incident was a worse case scenario, but 20/20 had errors in the story…and ABC had time to edit and correct. Did they? No. So while their is no excuse in misfilling a prescription, it may do investigative journalists some good to remember when they are pointing fingers, 3 more are pointing back at them. We should all strive to do better.

WORST EVER REPORT BY ABC
Not enough investigation at all. You should know that around billions of prescription are filled every month in US by US PHARMACISTS. If you have found few errors, that happened in last FEW YEARS, that does not relate anywhere to you conclusion of “epidemic”.
ABC should remember that, PHARMACY is still america’s most trusted profession. Pharmacists are not god, they are human. All humans are prone to errors. There are several issues that ABC failed to mention like the circumstances Pharmacists are forced to work in by CEO’s of big chains (CORPORATE AMERICA).
If any of these patients are saying that Pharmacist who makes 1 mistake should be fired, go and get your prescriptions filled in canada or somewhere else through internet.
Then you will know importance of US pharmacist.
God Bless America, with this new side of journalism.

Your story was biased and inaccurate, but the truth doesn’t always win ratings does it? We pharmacists are responsible for the safety and welfare of the public and some of us take our jobs very seriously. Yes, the girl who typed the prescription wrong was a teenager, however the pharmacist legally needs to check every prescription and whether a teenager or a noble-prize winning scientist types it, human nature dictates that sometimes mistakes will be made. Despite pressure from the chains to fill prescriptions fast, the real issue is public pressure. Do they want it fast or do they want it right? People moan and complain when you tell them there prescription will be 20 minutes. Then they proceed to ask you a thousand questions about which toothpaste would be best for their sensitive teeth or which antihistamine their dog should take. All the while, the prescriptions are backing up because the technicians may assemble them, but a pharmacist MUST check them before they go out. You get back in the pharmacy and another patient wants to chew your ear about how generics are not the same because they tried generic store-brand ice cream and it is nowhere near as good as Bluebell. Inside the pharmacy, line 1 has a prescription transfer, line 2 is a new prescription being called in, and line 3 is Mrs.Smith returning your call about a question you had regarding a potential drug interaction. In the meantime, the customer in the waiting room is complaining because they have been sitting there for 25 minutes and all we have to do is “put the pills in the bottle and slap a label on it”. When the prescription is done, the cashier calls for a counsel which is REQUIRED on all new prescriptions in the state of Texas. You go to the window where the customer proceeds to answer his cell phone in the middle of the consultation. How about showing all that is involved with the profession of pharmacy and maybe people will be a little more patient. And what about people taking a little time to make sure they have all the information and take a little responsibility for themselves?

pharmacist and pharm techs can and do make mistakes but they r under tremendous stress every day. They are expected to complete several tasks at once and this is what causes mistakes. The tech counts medication, answers phones, rings out customers answers questions for customers concerning where otc medications are located, and does several other misc. work around the pharmacy, yet the tech will only get paid 6.35 per hour. In addition to all this both pharmacist the techs have to deal with unruly customers who don’t want to understand why their medication will be filled late or why insurance companies wont pay for them. I work 12 hour shifts as a tech get paid 6.35 per hour and that wage can barely fill gas for my four cylinder car.

I am a pharmacy technician of 9 years at a grocery store and this show really pissed me off. Here are some of the ways I spend a typical day: Babysitting the Vicodin addicts who are eating 20 tabs a day when they only should be taking 2. Taking 10+ calls from same person who is wondering if their Vicodin has been refilled yet or if they can get it early because they are going out of town(usually to the mall 15 min. up the road). Calling insurance to ask why medication was covered last month but not now and holding for 20 min. Calling insurance to ask why patient not covered, when it turns out they “forgot” they quit their job last month and no longer have insurance – just hoping Rx might go through. Calling insurance to get ID # for person who doesn’t have it on them but thinks they have the company with the blue and white cards. Calling Md to verify RX because refill came back all wrong and person entering information on the electronic script program at the
office has no medical or drug training and input everything wrong. Helping little old lady do her grocery shopping because the pharmacy staff are the only ones she can get to acknowlege her. Listening to customer cry about why Medicaid won’t pay for her baby’s tylenol and she can’t afford it but while she’s at the counter can I ring up her beer? Etc, etc, etc. Let someone from 20/20 spend a day doing my job and then we can talk.

I have worked in a well-known drugstore for 4 1/2 years. The pharmacy has always been my first love. I love helping customers; NEVER EVER have I thought about decieving them! The specific quote about the pharmacy personnel decieving customers without thier knowledge is garbage. Every customer is asked whether counseling from the pharmacist is needed, if not; they must sign to decline counseling. If counseling is their request, then they will still be asked to sign only once all of thier questions were asked to decline any FURTHER questions. Patients don’t realize this but signing that moniter is also helpful in determing any fradulent pick-ups by people who you did not authorize to do so. I don’t know how many times I have had to print off the signature from our computer database showing the patients own handwriting and signature after being screamed at that they didn’t pick it up.
Another point that I want to make is the fact that a pharmacy is NOT Burger King or McDonalds… Filling one script takes at LEAST 15 minutes. Patients must understand that while filling that SINGLE script the pharmacy staff is answering phone calls, correcting any mistakes that the doctor has made on your script, checking to make sure that everything on your script is written correctly and also typed correctly. Because not only do we have to answer to you, our customer, but we also have to answer to insurance companies if the quantity, days supply, etc. is incorrect!
Unfortunately, Most of the people that are believing this junk that 20/20 has pulled out of thier… are the people that come to my counter and tell me they want “all of thier scripts filled”… we don’t have crystal balls to tell us what scripts you are on and what ones you are not taking any longer. People NEED to read about thier medicine, make yourself aware!! It’s absolutely your right as a patient of our pharmacies!! Ask questions!! If you are that concerned about your drugs or your health, why are you waiting for us to ask you!! In the words of NIKE, just do it!!

people don’t understand the tremendous pressure the pharmasist is under, in addition to the techs…Working for a national chain pharmacy we’re expected to meet script quotas… Can you believe they gauge you on this and that if it’s somehow under what’s budgeted then they perceive that as not meeting expectations. There is no way you can control who goes to what pharmacy and at what time someone will be given a script to fill…it’s like these executives are banking on people to be constantly sick. Then there is the fact that more then 75% of the time customers who pick up their medication become highly argumentative with Rx personnel if their paticular medication isn’t covered or they’re actually trying to fill the script before it can actually be filled. there are federal mandates that prohibate certain medications from being dispensed prior to when they were originally filled.
mistakes are made on both sides of the gamate both by doctors and pharmacists…it’s human nature, no matter how highly trianed or educated you are it’s inevitable that a mistake will be made, especially is a high stress environment such as a pharmacy. Little do people know that the average chain pharmacy on any given week is filling between 2-3 thousand scripts in which all of these are 15 minutes or less…many times although you walk up the the rx counter and there is no line they’re always getting E-scripts and scripts being faxed in from doctors offices.. It’s also important that people who are taking medication educate themselves on what their medication looks like and the MG’s you’re taking…You should never assume anything and just pop something into your mouth without first checking out the medications characteristics.

I went to a grocery store pharmacy. Dropped off a script for my daughters emergancy seizure medicine(diastat acudial)it is a rectial gel. Her dosage is 15mg. First I had to tell them how to order the medicine. It is like a big syringe and they set it at doctor ordered dosage. I had to explain to them they needed to order the 20mg. size and set the dial to 15mg.
Upon picking up the medicine Thankfully I Noticed that they never bothered to set the dial correctly!!?? Even if the pharmacy had never filled this before,there are so many recources that the pharmacy could have checked into before letting a coustomer walk out with a incorrect dose.The pharmaceutical company that makes the drug offers instructions on thier website…call the docotrs office that wrote the script…or maybe check with other pharmacys in thier chain.
As far as I am concerned they put my 11 yr. old daughters life at risk!!!

I am a 20 year old college student and I have been working for retail pharmacy for about 2 years. I am a pharmacy technician and I could not believe the things that were said in 20/20. Fist: technicians are not the way they portray them. We are required to be certified by the PTCB and I can honestly say that all my associates are very smart and take the job seriously. Second: a 6 year college degree is not required for the job technicians do (data entry, filling, ordering and cashiering), checking the final product is the reason why the pharmacist is there.
Third: 20/20 said misfills are not tracked, they are wrong. Misfills are reported and are tracked, that is how pharmacies know where the problems are and how to fix them. Fourth: The working conditions for pharmacy staff are horrible. Most patients expect a prescription to be filled instantaneously, phones are ringing constantly, there are always problems with insurances, doctors write horrible and cannot even identify themselves (sometimes all we get is an illegible signature), people are rude and ignorant (they do not know what medications they are on, cannot leave cell-phone conversations for later, do not listen to pharmacists when counseling, they can’t even identify or get mad if asked their own address to insure the prescription will be sold to the right patient…etc, etc…), and we have to watch out for fake prescriptions, which we get a lot. Fifth: we do not ask the patients for a counseling waiver, that is the most stupid thing I have ever heard of. Counseling is offered, and like a comment above said, if you want counseling all you have to do is get it, no one will say “no mam, the pharmacist is too busy to counsel you!” What frustrates me the most, though, is that people don’t take the initiative to check themselves what they are taking. All they read is “take 1 daily” and that is all they do, they dont look at the name, don’t read the literature and do not check the drug size, shape and color that is also included in the literature. We actually have people every day saying the want a refill on their “white round pill” but don’t know the name or what it is for and get mad if we tell them we don’t know either (there are millions of white, rounded pills). So the bottom line is that while error do occur, we try as hard as we can so that they do not, I think that the biggest challenges are patients themselves (because of their apathy and lack of understanding to what we do) and the doctors ambiguity on prescriptions. By the way I don’t want to sound like a people hater because I am not. I love people, and what I do is satisfactory and that both pharmacist and pharmacy technicians do the best to ensure patient safety.

There is no excuse for the lack of staff in a pharmacy, the inability for a pharmacist to take a bathroom break,
a lunch break. Then for all the nights, holidays and weekends worked management makes the pharmacist find coverage for their own weekend off or their own vacation.
Pharmacists are professionals who have gone to school 6-8 years. The chain drug stores treat them like marbles.
They are not treated as professionals. They are a number to make the most money for the chain stores with the least amount of help and the least amount of management skills to support their needs.
Pharmacists have to manage themselves. They have no support from the upper levels of management. It is a crime if 20/20 would like to research that.
There were so many mistakes made in a chain store in MA that the board of pharmacy had to force the chain to hire a consultant to review why this happened. The chain store was not fixing the problem.
Pharmacists are treated very poorly in the world of retail pharmacy. There is no union and no one is willing to take a stand against the many inequities and gross miscare they face in every work day.
If you have to worry about going to the bathroom, eating lunch and not being able to take a day off for anything unless you find your own coverage (management passes that on to the pharmacist) imagine how you would feel on a daily basis. Minor rights of the average individual are not provided for a retail pharmacist every day at work.
It is a crime and all for the american dollar. Hope those people at the top executive level enjoy their profits and realize the havoc they wreak on those out in the field. They probably have never spent a day in the field and are
clueless of the pharmacists quality of life,

The problem needs to be solved at the executive level of these retail pharmacies.
They are putting their customers at risk and their employees for the sake of additional profit.
There really needs to be a 20/20 show done on the working conditions of those staff pharmacists. You would not believe how they are treated.

I can understand the defensiveness of the pharmacy staff to this report. Many have trained for years in their professions, have worked hard to get where they are. I also understand that we are human and fallible but the simple basic fact is the lack of quality control. I am a 48 year old quadriplegic and take several medications. I have made it my business to know what medications I take, what they look like, how they are dispensed, and what side effects and interactions they have. That knowledge is what kept me from taking Nitro that was placed in my prescription bottle instead of Baclofen. When I questioned the staff regarding the incorrect medication, I was told that they had probably changed companies they purchased from and it would be alright. I had to raise a “Stink” to get it corrected and am thankful they were able to contact the other patient before they took my Baclofen instead of their Nitro. If this were all, I maybe could forgive, but the same pharmacy chain recently filled a prescription for my mother of methylprednisolone to counteract allergic reactions prior to a testing procedure. Her script contained a quantity of 20 and instructed her to take 8 tonight and then 12 tomorrow. She called her doctor for verification only to find out that the script was for 3 pills and was giving the proper dosage. Had she taken the script as dispensed, it would have killed her. Now we have two family members placed in danger by the same pharmacy. It gets worse. My father was diagnosed with a CNS Lymphoma and was given methotrexate through IV in the hospital, dispensed over a 24 hour period. His third treatment was mislabeled to be dispensed over 2 hours and not 24. He died 3 weeks later without receiving the benefit of the estimated six months he would have had without any treatment. Like I said where is the quality control? Should we forgive these errors? NOWAY NO HOW!

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