ABC Story Leads to Deluge of Pharmacy Error Reports

As a caring retail pharmacist, I resent such a one-sided story. In defense of our industry, when it is reported that “despite techonogical advances” pharmacy error rates have not changed. They do not however even mention the million more prescriptions that are filled in any day now compared to then. I agree that any error is too many but the article is not showing all that has taken place in this time frame. As for reporting errors, where I work and at all the retail pharmacies that I know of, there is a stringent program for reporting errors. In fact, there are serious ramefecations if you do NOT report an error. But 20/20 didn’t divulge that or even ask anyone. All pharmacy technicians in this state are required to be “nationally board certified” They undergo formal education and then must pass a national exam. Most states I know of are this way or are heading towards this standard. The practice of hiring untrained highschool students is unheard of. I am particularly irritated with the statement “that very few customers buying aspirin were warmed of potential side affects if taking warfarin”. By law, no one but a phamacist may give medication advise. That means, no clerk, pharmacy tech or assistant may give you ANY advise about any medication use, period. If you think we have little time to counsel now, how about we go to the counter everytime someone buys aspirin to inquire if they are taking warfarin? That would be great. What about the millions of aspirin that are sold where there is no pharmacist? I just think the example is far-fetched. As for counselling less, the chain I work for is always striving to allow MORE time for us to counsel. Again I refer to HUGE and ever-growing increase in prescriptions and much more complex medication regimens. Pharmacists have a rigorous and lengthy education to accomplish. Most schools only graduate 90 or so new pharmacist a year. Considering that a pharmacist has many choices as to what venue to practice in. Will it be retail, hospital, the DEA, the FDA, the CIA, any of the pharmaceutical companies,HMO’s, the list is HUGE. Retail get a small slice of the pie. Also here’s something to consider, Do you have any idea how much of the public comes to us for advise INSTEAD of making a doctors appointment? We spend a lot of time with the public helping them to figure out what is needed. Does the situation require a doctor or can I help and lend a sympathetic ear? Unlike doctors, we do NOT receive any extra monetary compensation for this service. It is FREE ………for now. For me, my job is ALL about making someone’s day or life better. My job IS stressful and there is a lot of distraction but I would choose no other career.

I am a liscensed pharmacy intern and I have been working in a retail pharmacy for six years. I did work behind the counter when I was sixteen years old and I had no problem handling the job whatsoever. Even if I did make a mistake, the pharmacist was there to catch it. There was never a time where I filled a prescription and it went out to the patient without the pharmacist checking it. That was a very misleading part of the “report” aired on 20/20. You made it seem like untrained high school aged technicians were filling prescriptions without supervision. I also did not like the fact that the one pharmacist was blaming the company for urging him to fill faster. Much of that demand is customer driven. Customers will complain if they have to wait more than five minutes to get their medication. They think that all we are doing is taking pills from a big bottle and putting them in a little bottle. Then when an error happens, it is suddenly a more complex job and people should be taking more time to make sure everything is correct. It seems as if pharmacists cannot win. The time issue is the reason why there are so many more technicians working than pharmacists. There is generally only one pharmacist working at a time, and the rest are technicians or interns. That is what makes the aspirin example so weak. From looking at the video, it appeared that it was only technicians that rang up the product with the warfarin without saying anything. It was also unfair to say that the “patients” in the example left without having any knowledge of the aspirin/warfarin interaction. The bottle of warfarin probably had an auxillary label on it that said “Do not take with aspirin or aspirin containing products.” The patient also has to have some responsibility to know what they are signing. It says right there on the paper what exactly they are signing for. The tape did not show if the technician asked if the patient had any questions. If the patient responds “no”, then that is a refusal to counsel. The last part of the “investigation” that troubled me was that 20/20 basically received 100 fake prescriptions. Who wrote those prescriptions, and who were they for? Is that legal or ethical? If you’re going to go that far to show some kind of problem with the industry, why don’t you also spend a day in a pharmacy and count the number of times the pharmacist saves somebody’s life? If you did a study on that, there would be an exponential examples of that over even the smallest filling error.

This is concerning your “Undercover Pharmacy Investigation”.
While I am not defending prescription errors and the actions of some pharmacies having teenagers dispense medications, I would like to make some positive comments about Walgreens and other observations.
My wife and I both have long term health problems. We have received excellent service from our local Walgreens. They have gone out of their way to assist us and some of the pharmacists have even made the effort to remember our names.
One of the reasons I changed from an HMO to an insurance company accepted by Walgreens and others, is because the “in house” pharmacy of the HMO dispensed the wrong medication to my wife. This was not one of the “country’s best known chain drug stores.” We caught the blunder before my wife took the medication.
The final responsibility for ensuring a person takes the correct medication lies with that person or a care giver. People should read the label and the information that comes with the medication. I don’t know if you made this point during your program but if you did not, then you did a disservice to your viewers. Doctors could help in this area by writing prescriptions so that patients can read them.
On two separate occasions, the shape and color of two of my medications changed. Both times I immediately checked and found that it was the same medications, only by different manufacturers. I have called the pharmacy more than once with questions on medication compatibility and the pharmacists have been very patient and helpful.
While all pharmacies have room to improve, too many people are too quick to shirk personal responsibility. Read the label folks, it is your life or health, or that of a loved one.

There would be fewer errors if medical records and communication between different sectors of medicine were more open. We can hope for technologic improvements or to hold more pharmacists more accountable, but that will just avoid a more global solution. Why do insurance companies have detailed information of all prescriptions filled by a patient, but withhold this information from pharmacists. In the story above where Pam is wise enough to double check doses between the hospital and community pharmacy records- why did the pharmacy have no access to those same records?
We can continue to point the finger at the pharmacy, but improvements in error prevention will only come when attention is placed on the entire system, versus just one player.

Do you realize the increase in cost the consumer would have to pay if we had a pharmacist counsel every patient who buys asprin. The patient complaines constantly because it takes more than 5 minutes to fill their rx, and because it too expensive, we handle insurance problems, dr calls, patient problems, checking out customers, people buzzing us in drive through, typing, filling, checking, double checking, double counting, and checking every single think we do for error. we care deeply about the patient. I am seriously ticked about this report and you are scaring people into not filling their vital medication because of fear that we may make a mistake. I had a woman call and counsel all of her medication today because she didnt want to have a potentally deadly mistake made. It took me over 30 minutes to convince her that she needed her synthroid and antibiotics. I hope you all are happy. You may have just killed more people than all the mistakes we have make that caused deaths in the past 5 years.

I would like the producers of 20/20 to come into a pharmacy and show the country what it is that we do every day. As a certified pharmacy tech working in a retail chain I feel almost unappreciated, people just don’t understand the things that we deal with on a daily basis. We do not just have to “slap a lable on it” like most people think. We check first to see if the patient has had the meds before, if they are allergic to anything and if the dosing is correct, half the time we need to call the doctors office because either something is incorrect or we can’t read the script. Now the patient needs to wait longer. I really wish we could bring cameras into the pharmacy and show people what really goes into filling prescriptions, I think it would open alot of eyes.

What about the training of X-Ray techs and other “skilled” medical positions? They take warm bodies off the street just like pharmacies do.

I am a Nationally Certified Pharmacy Technician. I am not a high school student or just someone off the street. The company I work for is a great company. I had to go through a lot of training to get my pharmacy tech licenses. I had to study hard and I have to keep up my license with continuing education every two years. I think your report gives us CPht a bad rap. In my store also we don’t wear white. I never answer a question about a medication I always go and get our Pharmacist in charge, as I was told to do. I think this report is one sided, and very political. I think that you should talk to all of the people that we help day in a day out. And also if people would realize that if they need to get a Rx filled that it is more than just putting pills in a bottle. No matter where you go there is always some wait. You have to wait in a doctors office, you have to wait for you medication also. I think that is the main problem is that people have no patience anymore. I don’t think that it is fair for these people in the report to have to be marked with a scarlett letter the rest of their lives. My heart goes out to the families of those in the story who were affected by those mistakes. We are only human. I have the most respect for the Pharmacist I work with. I would trust them with my medication and my families. They are dedicated, and help everyone that needs their help. They also make sure to give out of the drug reactions and precautions. I think ABC needs to think about the other side.

One thing to remember is that some states do have stricter requirements for technicians. I teach a pharmacy technician training program in California. In this state it is required that an individual obtain a state license, by completing a training program, or passing the National PTCB exam. In addition they must be 18 years of age, a high school graduate/GED and have a background check.
Another important point is that Pharmacy Technicians are one step in the fill process, and only one set of eyes responsible for preventing medication errors. The fact of the matter is that pharmacists are the more highly trained individual, and are ultimately responsible for checking each and every medication leaving the pharmacy.
As a teacher for the profession I continually emphasize accuracy, and and patient care. I agree with the above poster. A negative light has been shed on the entire profession.
In all areas of medicine errors are made, because of human error, there is no perfection. However, the effort and training that goes into error prevention is extensive.
Your story is not so much an expose, as pharmacies have always made errors to some extent.
Instead of casting a negative light on an entire industry, you should instead educate patients on how they can be more aware of what medications they are taking and why. Patient education is the final step in the process of preventing medication errors. A patient should always question their doctor regarding their prescriptions and find out what the name, strength and directions should be for the medication they will be taking.

Hi,
I am a pharmacy Technician been one for 20 years. Yes I did work retail for a short time. But what I did not like was the ability not to have a lunch unable to sit or go to the bathroom. Because when your store was busy you could not do those things. Also most of the chain stores let unqualified technicians work in their stores. Just like your program states. Yeah there’s training but guess what if they want to be trained. If you do not take the training you can still work in the pharmacy. We have complained about this for years about retail because they refuse to pay a technician who is highly skilled and qualified to work in the pharmacy the money she/he wants to earn. That is why their are some many teenagers in the pharmacy. Please feel free to contact me for more info

I am a 27 yr old pharm tech for a major chain and have been for the past 7 yrs and I am insulted by this report. I take my job very serious, I think it’s the public that has a problem. They need to take some responsibility for their own lives. I can’t even keep count of how many times a day one of us gets yelled at because we tell someone the wait is 15 min. we always hear “really, you just have to put a pill in the bottle and slap a label on it…” I think you need to put a hidden camera behind a pharmacy counter and see how we get treated. Oh, and if it’s been 1 second past that 15 mins people will stand at the counter and stear at the pharmacisit and ask what is taking so long. Now you tell me that wouldn’t make you a little uneasy while you’re DOUBLE checking a script. You people have no idea what we go through on a daily basis and how stressful this job really is, oh and how little we get paid for it. On a side note when there is a problem reading, or a dosing question on a script and have to call a doctor do you even know how long it takes to get an answer back if we even do…and again people get mad they have to wait. So i guess my point is maybe if the public gave us a little more respect a chance and some time to our jobs and stop treating a pharmacy like a fast food place perhaps these “mistakes” wouldn’t happen. FYI we are only human, and I doubt anybody out there can say they have 100% accuracy at their job people have to remember that and that gets lost in all this hipe.I have so much more I could say but what would it really matter you don’t care about the other side of the story that is plain to see.

This is extremely one-sided, which if you read what has already been posted, it is already clearly stated. I am a pharmacist working for one of the chains you heavily targeted in your investigation. I am not represented in your investigation, except by 1 pharmacist that ran outside to talk to a patient, because I have done that before. I do more than the required continuing education for both of the states that I am registered in. I particularly do CE in areas that I think are my “weak” areas, as to strengthen them. I am constantly counseling my patients. Sometimes they get tired of me telling them things that I’ve told them before, but I want to remind them. The pharmacy I work at does have an error reporting system. It is a learning process. It errors are made, we must come up with an action plan as to how to prevent that error from occurring again. And everyone in the pharmacy knows about the error, not just those that are involved in it. I am constantly educating my technicians, who are eager to learn. I teach them about max doses, new medications, why things interact, etc. No they are not allowed to counsel the patients, but the more they understand the better. I am the person who is solely responsible for what goes out of my pharmacy, but the more eyes that see that prescription and understand the significance the better. There are many steps in the process of filling prescriptions that are required in order to prevent errors. We use barcode technology and automation when we can. I care about my patients. And realize that they are my patients, not my customers. It does frustrate me a great deal though when these patiens huff and puff over a 20 minute wait on a prescription. You will wait 30 minutes easily on a pizza, but 20 minutes on something that can be life-saving, humph. In America we like to shift responsiblity away from ourselves. The cases that you chose to display are very saddening. If I was involved in those cases, I think I would have to step down from my position, but there is a certain responsibility the end-user must take on. I don’t know how many times I have someone come to the pharmacy and they don’t even know what doctor they saw or the patient’s date of birth. I want to be accurate always, but the patients need to help me be so.

My pet peeve is with doctors who DON’T write legibly. What is the point in seeing a doctor if they are going to put your life on the line with sloppy penmanship?
There should be a LAW that ALL prescriptions MUST BE TYPED, not written.
See Michael Moore’s upcoming movie “Sicko’s”. Due out this year.

After the show aired on ABC, I had the good fortune of working the weekend and the FIRST Monday of the month, which is always among the busiest and it now overwhelms and saddens me that this story will ultimately do more harm than good. I happily took calls from many of my patients finally wanting counseling regarding their medication so for that I thank you. However, there were many patients with disease states that cannot afford to be off their medication wondering if they should continue it, if myself or the doctor knew of the interaction and complications, if mistakes had EVER been made and they were not made aware of it.
I had to convince an elderly man with a history of decubitous ulcers to continue his diabetic medications! This is what happens when one reports on a portion of the story. The public depends on health care professionals to be the expert and specifically the pharmacist to be the drug expert, just as they trust journalists to report honestly and ethically, which to my patients, yes they are my patients not customers, to their detriment you have not done so. One problem we face in the health care profession is patients who underuse their medication because of cost, etc now you have added another burden to the patients list and another possible reason they will have hospital admissions or ER visits unnecessarily because they are not properly using their medication due to this scare tactic for the purpose of ……what was it again??

As a pharmacist, I have the following suggestions to the general public:
1). Choose your pharmacist like you would your physician.
2). Ask them how long he works in a single day, how much help he has, and if he gets a lunch break or other type of break.
3). Ask them how many prescriptions they fill in an hour. Using this as a guide, 20 prescriptions per hour equals one every 3 minutes. Personally, I think one prescription every 5-6 minutes is the bottom line as far as safety is concerned.
4). How do they feel about counseling you on your medications (including OTC products).
5). STICK WITH ONE PHARMACY! Don’t chase the stores offering transfer coupons. This way you will get to know your pharmacist and they will get to know you, what your are on, how you take it, and over time they will become attached to you and become your biggest advocate.

As a pharmacy Intern I am also shocked and discusted with 2020 for this one-sided report. I was that 16 year old working for CVS and I was better than both of our 35 year-olds that worked there. I am shocked that as such a well-respected news organization you would make such claims without having any FACTS to back what is merely your OPINION.
The pharmacy techs are underpaid and the entire staff is overworked. Have YOU went an entire 12 hour shift without sitting down to eat, or eating at all for that matter? Have you ever had to refrain from urinating just because you were too busy for the last 4 hours? The answer is allowing our pharmacy staff a little break. Don’t expect us to have your prescription ready in 5 minutes if you want it to be right.
Also, why is this one of the only professions where you have a doctorate degree but yet you are worked like a servant with no breaks, no lunches and constantly being questioned and criticized. They outlawed slavery years ago! So how about the consumers doing their part to stop complaining about things that are out of our control and waisting our time. This will allow us to do our job better and more efficiently.

I cannot believe the unresponsible journalism that went into this story. I am a pharmacist in Canada, and I am disgusted by this piece. Pharmacists already have an uphill battle without ridiculous stories like this being aired.
Get all the facts before reporting a sensational story. I didn’t think 20/20 was a tabloid.

1)The video was good and informative but laced with such negativity in an attempt to push viewers into unnecessary alert when it comes to mistakes in the pharmacy. but then again, that is what the media does, and what it’s good at. Considering pharmacies DO fill anywhere from 100 to 700 scripts a day, mistakes unfortunately CAN happen but does not happen OFTEN. walgreens especially has adopted new measures in limiting mistakes from happening, ie, installing a machine that matches a bottle of drug to the label itself, ensuring the right pills go into the right bottle, for example. That was not in the video.
2) ALSO, it is NOT TRUE that pharmacists are expected to fill 300+ medications on ONE SHIFT. i would say a pharmacist usually fills half of that during his entire shift, and in the case of extremely busy stores, more than one pharmacist is staffed. at walgreens, we also keep track of mistakes that happen, as opposed to what hte lady interviewed on the video said (though i dont recall if she was a rep from walgreens or not).
3) we (walgreens) do have a system that logs mistakes, who did the mistakes, and courses of action to take in the future to limit a similar mistake from happening again.

I am a CPhT working for Walgreens. I have been employed there for apporximately 2 years, and in that time I have NEVER worked with a teenage employee who would be better off flipping burgers. I have however worked with many dedicated pharmacy technicians that work themselves to the bone in the face of the GEBERAL PUBLIC, which is the most unforgiving, thankless, tactless and unreasonable entity known to this planet. I am deeply dissapointed in ABC for not properly doing their homework and understanding the role of technicians in the pharmacy. First, it is completely illegal for a pharmacy technician, CPhT (CPhT is the professional designation for a Rx tech who is nationally certified)or not, to counsel patients in any way on their medications. Your story about the coumadin / aspirin interaction is blown very far out of proportion. The individual ringing up patients at the counter is 99% of the time a pharmacy technician, and probably a junior tech at that. It is completely unreasonable to expect them to inform the patient of the dangers associated with mixing prescription drugs and OTC’s. Please, let’s have the world at large take just a little bit of responsibility for what they decide to put in their bodies! And don’t go trying to blame the Pharmacist, who’s probably tied up with a million other responsibilities. The public needs to wake up and start realizing that we cannot always hold everyone’s hand. That’s why we place warning labels on prescriptions. .

I consider it my personal responsibility to know as much as possible about all of the medications I take, before I even take the first pill. I educate myself, because I can rely upon myself.
Mistakes happen at pharmacies. I have only had it happen to me once in 30 years, and it was corrected immediately upon bringing it to the pharmacist’s attention. I have had pharmacists catch multiple problems before they arose, however, and they have always gone out of their way to help me when I have had questions or needed more intensive advice.
It is lamentable that mistakes occur, but given the pressures these people work under, it behooves patients to educate themselves about their medications. It is important for patients to know the dosage of their pills before the doctor even hands them a prescription.

A pharmacy tech is NOT licenced to dispense a Rx – the ultimate responsibility is that of the pharmacist – they should provide the final check.

well i did not watch 20/20 that day but i heard about what was casted. fortunately I had a chance to view the topic on-line it’s really time for the media to focus on the problems that today pharmacist facing. overly working pharmacist without any break standing on the feet for 12 to 14 hours a day. There is a really problem in staffing the people in the pharmacy areas of the big chains some follow the weekly budget others follow the script count to determine how much help can pharmacist can get. Its very sad that 20/20 did not give any advise to the people not to interupt your pharmacist regarding the front store sales like what’s the price for toilet tissue,can you ring thisup for me.constant telephone interuptions regarding the front store sale items.
As a media it’s also yor responsibilty to make the people aware of how busy is the pharmacist and also make them aware that filling a prescrition is not a joke its dealing with some one’s life. Would you please advise the public not to iterupt you pharmacis for silly things that donot reqiure pharmacist attention in fact there are front store personal to help. just the day after the 20/20 a woman interupting for the soap that was on the sale for the week she did not care that I was on the phone with doctor and writing a oral order for one of my patient, all she care about her soap.
cell phoes are the second biggest issue. Peolple on the phone constatly talking when they approch pharmacy counter they really donot care much about the signs that says donot use the cell phone at the drop-off or pick-up counters.

I take high offence of the one sided view that 20/20 reported of, in regards to our pharmacy(Walgreens). Out of all the companies i’ve worked for private and public, Walgreens provides the most training and support to the staff and dedicate the most support to their RX staff requiring their managers to be cerified by the PTCB. We have a hard enough job without having to deal with vias reports such as did. Negatively bashing us without viewing both sides of pharmacy operations.

Sadly, I was unable to catch the original airing of this report..because I was working, at Walgreens, as a Pharmacy Technician. However, I DID catch the report online. With every minute.. my blood boiled and my stomach churned. I cannot count on my fingers and toes how many times I have been Yelled at, called STUPID and IDIOT and Incompetant by the patients because they had to wait for 25 minutes to get their prescriptions, but they will accept a 45 minute wait at TGIFridays to get a artery clogging burger?! Come on, ABC! Give me a BREAK! I love my patients. I care a great deal for them. However i am NOT a pharmacist. I am not allowed to Counsel. We always are instructed to ask the patient at every point of sale if they have ANY questions about their medications. and If infact they do, We direct them to the Patient Consultation Window. And in most cases.. their question is.. WHy does it cost so much? WE DONT KNOW! ASK YOUR INSURANCE COMPANY!! Our Pharmacist is WAY too busy to be burdened with copay questions.. Your investigation was very one sided, with so much spin, its ridiculous. And Again, when it comes to the clerical Errors.. ask our Senior Techs how many times they have to call a dr in a day to VERIFY directions.. or strengths.. because the Dr wrote it incorrectly? … A patient wants a refill on a prescription..”What is the name of the medication?” I ask. “I dont Know.. its my water pill” I look in the profile.. 3 different Diuretics. and this patient has NO CLUE what they are taking. So they Guess. We fill what they tell us to, (it just so happens to be the wrong one,, but I left my Psychic cap at home that day) and then.. its OUR fault.. CALL THE DEA!! The demand for Pharmacists is MUCH MUCH greater than the supply, and many pharmacists work doubles, and sometimes 6 days a week.. and Why? to keep the patients happy.. Do you want it done fast? or do you want it done right? We have 2 teenagers working in our Pharmacy. and one is a 1st year student at St louis College of pharmacy.. and the other is planning on attending st louis college of pharmacy. They both show great dedication to their job and future profession. 20/20, I’m going to set up a hidden camrea behind my In Window and Ill send you what My fellow Technicians, my pharmacists and I go through on a Daily Basis. That will INDEED teach you about the meaning of FAIR AND BALANCED REPORTING!!

As a nationally certified and state licensed pharmacy technician, I was dismayed and disgusted by this report. How is this “news” intended to help anyone, or improve their lives in any way? I do not work for Walgreens yet have spent the past four days defending their reputation. It just makes me sick that a “news” program that is geared toward the same demographic that most frequents pharmacies would cause such undue distress and anxiety to our patients, most of whom are already sick and do not need to be worrying any more about their medication than they already do. The worst part is telling Americans that they are “waiving their right” to receive any information on their medication when they sign for their prescription. This is an outrageous lie. Anybody, at anytime, can approach a pharmacist and ask a question, whether they are recommending a multivitamin or discussing the side effects of their prescription. When we have you sign, that is after we ask if you have any questions and is proof that counsel was in fact offered. If you do not accept counsel at that moment, you are in no way waiving your right to speak with the pharmacist.
I am so upset by these broadcasts. We were warned last week that 20/20 would be portraying pharmacies in a negative light, but I never expected such a work of fiction.

I am a pharmacy intern and I would just like to echo my fellow student pharmacists and pharmacists. This report was a typical one sided story the news is so good at. Your number one goal is to scare the everyday consumer and rattle up the lawyers. You should spend a day in a pharmacy and air that story. There is a reason the pharmacist is consistently rated one of the most trusted professionals, I invite you to see it.

I find it astonishing that ABC did not focus on the important aspect of their little experiment with 100 prescriptions. Maybe because it back fired on 20/20 and the Auburn University Professors (or so-called professors). I hope eveyone listened when they said ALL 100 prescriptions were filled correctly with the correct drug and correct dose. They said it so quietly though hoping you were not paying attention. As if to them it was not a big deal. This report was about pharmacies making errors (truely what the show means by errors is filling the wrong drug for someone or filling the right drug but with the wrong dose) and here their little test showed that the pharmacies filled ALL 100 prescriptions correctly with right durg and right dose. But you didn’t hear them talk about that. NO! The reporters (and the Professors for that matter) instead focused on the fact that some bottles had a few too many or too little tablets and a few other meaningless things that ONLY professors, who don’t work retail by the way, say are mistakes. I am sorry but how will having one or two more/few tablets in a bottle translate into patient HARM? That’s just it, it NEVER will. but you don’t hear the professors telling you that. The errors that ABC reported on their show that caused those patients harm were because the patient’s were either given the wrong drug or the right drug at the wrong dose (which unfortunately happens). This only shows that this report had some other/hidden agenda to it. Yes, there is a problem with the system (as with any human system) but to be so one sided as 20/20 was, they should be disgusted with themselves.

I have been a Pharmacy Technician for 10 years and thank the media for their recent efforts in exposing Retail Pharmacy shortcomings to the public. This is the job of the media…to inform the public on issues of public welfare/safety.

Stress & tremendous pressure by Store Managers & upper management to fill Rx very Fast & as many with no breaks is the routine in most chains,that is why mis-fils occur.
Most non-professional store manager’s “big bonus” depends on Rx Volume,and they don’t have license to loose ,so, why they car?All they care is fat bonus.
After more than 30 years in retail Rx industry, most chains drug stores have become “assembly line of Rx”, at the cost of accuracy.The Federal & State authorities have to intervene & make some laws about “help” and lunch-breaks to R.Ph.,otherwise this kind of mis-fils will continue.Seven figures law suit will be awarded, and all the chains have to do is increase the sale price to cover those law suits.

I am also a Walgreen’s pharmacist. I did not like the aspirin purchase component of the segment, but had no problem with anything else. I think the root cause of the phenobarb/glipizide mix up was that the RX was written for tablets and not liquid. Why on earth didn’t the rph call the dr. and change to the liquid? Shame on all of those pharmacists and pharmacy chains for not counseling patients. Pharmacists and technicians can blame until they turn blue, but we have a responsibility to provide consultation. It is our last chance to make sure we got it right. I refuse to pass up that chance. We owe it to our patients and to our profession.

As a retail pharmacist, I agree with the comments posted by Badger above. I felt the “study” in your story was poorly designed. In an ideal world, a pharmacist should be at the out window to counsel patients. In the real world, unfortunately, it’s often a technician at the out window. Given no other choice, I feel my place is to concentrate on filling and checking the prescriptions on my counter, rather than ringing a cash register. I would not have expected a technician who was not a pharmacy student to pick up on a warfarin-aspirin interaction, and, as Badger pointed out, it is not their place to do so.
Also, as someone mentioned here, the pharmacy I work at uses auxillary labels warning against taking these medications together. Also, I know that patients who are prescribed this drug are counselled on its use by their physicians or nurses. Which brings me to another point. I don’t know if your story mentioned how far into the course of treatment the patient in the story suffered a stroke. While I feel what happened to her is tragic, and I am not trying to excuse the pharmacy’s mistake, patients on warfarin should be closely monitored by their physicians, particularly when beginning therapy, as each patient’s response to the drug is different.
Your story made no mention of a physician’s corresponding responsibility. I can think of many occasions where I have called a physician to verify a dose which I felt was not appropriate, and got an “I wrote it, you fill it” response. Additionally, I am met with anger from the patients, whose only concern is “How long is this going to take?” The store I work in has a Starbuck’s outlet in it, and I have seen people wait in line for their coffee for a half hour and not complain. Yet, when I tell them I need 10-15 minutes to fill their prescription, they complain. Interesting, considering if the barista makes a mistake it won’t kill them.

In complaining that retail pharmacies may fall short on patient counseling, 20/20 overlooked one glaring fact: Millions of Americans, myself included, have been forced into mail-order pharmacy programs by our health insurers. How much “patient counseling” do you suppose mail order pharmacy customers receive?
20/20 complains about retail pharmacies not taking time to counsel patients, but even a ‘high school kid in a white coat’ would be a vast improvement over the ‘patient counseling’ mail order customers receive – at least that kid in a lab coat can go and get a qualified pharmacist to answer a question. Last time I checked, my mailman wasn’t much help in that regard…

i have been a pharmacy technician for 2 years now and i once thought it was a job where you “throw pills in a bottle and slap on a label.” i have since come to realize there is a lot more involved. i had only in-store training and am in-fact not a certified technician by national standards, but i have come far in just 2 years by my own effort and desire to do my job to the best of my ability. we even have a technician fresh out of high school and i trust her to do her job just as much as anyone else in my pharmacy. at pharmacies big and small mistakes will happen no matter what. it is inevitable no matter how careful you are. my heart goes out to the families of those affected by the unfortunate mistakes.
it is standard policy at my pharmacy to “show and tell” all medications at the register counter. this involves technicians reading a label back to a patient and physically opening a bottle and showing a patient what the pills look like. i myself have caught errors doing this and think it is good practice for any patient to want to look at their prescription before they leave the counter. i had a patient ask me just today how she can ensure she is getting what her doctor ordered. i explained to her she can ask to see her original prescription as well as our stock bottle for which her medication came from. i told her she can also speak to her doctor or any pharmacist if she has any other concerns.
i believe patient education is vitally important. the pharmacy is not starbucks and should never be looked at as a starbucks, mcdonalds, burger king, etc. we even have drive-through pharmacies nowdays! way to go and make things impersonal and have less patient interaction! as much as pharmacists, technicians, and doctors try their best and use their best judgement to provide care, i’d like patients to be just as proactive. you’re pills are white now instead of blue? call the pharmacy. you feel light-headed when you stand? call the doctor! you notice you have a rash that is getting worse and worse? make a visit to the ER! know what you are taking and make an active effort to stay informed about who, what, where, when, why. don’t be afraid to ask. ask your doctor before leaving the doctor’s office. ask to speak to a PHARMACIST if you have questions at your pharmacy. we want to answer your questions. we want to provide you the best care you deserve. be active in your care and those of your family! there are loads of materials avaliable and accessible anywhere and to anyone if you want to look!

As a pharmacy school faculty member, I want to thank you for attempting to tackle a portion of a major issue in the American healthcare system, medication errors. On the other hand, it was disappointing that the segment focused only on the issue of dispensing errors.
This is illustrated in the case around which the segment was centered. As described in your presentation, Alexandra received a prescription for phenobarbital to prevent seizures due to prematurity. If as was implied in this statement she did not have seizures prior to the prescription being written, providing the prescription was a major error in and of itself. Even 7 years ago there was sufficient evidence in the medical literature to demonstrate that phenobarbital is not effective in preventing seizures due to prematurity.
Additionally it is associated with behavioral and cognitive adverse effects that mostly likely would have impaired her. So, not only was a dispensing error made by the pharmacist, but a mistake may well have been made by the physician in prescribing an unnecessary medication. This points to the fact that medication errors are much bigger than simple dispensing errors and that a true systematic approach is needed. Repeatedly, studies have shown that pharmacist involvement in patient care from the writing of a prescription to delivery of the medication to the patient results in fewer errors and improvements in patient care.

Maybe the pharmacy made an error, but 20/20 made a bigger error. And that is in NOT reporting the “rest of the story”

I am also a pharmacy technician at a Walgreens pharmacy. At the store I’ve worked at for 3 years as well to the various others I’ve helped out at, I have had yet to encounter a high school student. Primarily we’ve been adults out of college or currently in college. Several of us, like myself, are getting the requisite experience in a pharmacy so that we can apply to graduate school to become pharmacists ourselves.
My chain has an internal system for keeping track of errors. In my store, we also let one another know when something got caught, so that we all know to look for it in the future. Also, we have many checks along the way while filling the script to ensure it’s accuracy. As a technician, if I’m not sure about how a script reads or if something looks fishy to me (we’ve caught errors in decimal point placings from the doctor this way), I will take the script to the pharmacist to get their opinion, which in many cases results in a call to the doctor’s office, as they have prescribed something incorrectly.
While it’s tragic when any error gets out, much less injures or kills someone, the reality is that errors will happen anytime there is a human being involved. You will also encounter errors not just in big chain pharmacies, but also small ones, hospitals, and clinics, too. Focusing on one part of the market is misleading.

With all the responses, I hope mine will not be ignored. I have been a certified pharmacy technician for 6 years. I’ve worked with a major superstore pharmacy and currently with a very large chain pharmacy. My first point will be that pharmacy’s fill many prescriptions per day, and there are time constraints placed on us. If a person who has walked up to my counter is not waited on within 15 seconds, I’m repremanded by the district supervisor. Yet at the same time, my pharmacist is busy verifing the 6 prescriptions I’ve just typed, and I was just interrupted to wait on that customer while filling a load of 2 to 6 prescriptions for 1 patient. The work load and time constraints and insurance problems and bad doctor handwriting requiring endless calls on top of only 2 people running the entire pharmacy could lead to hundreds of errors per day, but it doesn’t. It’s the rare instance where a mistake makes it past our busy pharmacists.
My second point being in technician pay. I am one of the few who absolutely love my job, and even at $10 an hour for 6 years experience and being a lead certified technician, I stay. But most technicians can’t live on this pay, or are just unwilling, so we have a huge turnover. So to add to the load in the pharmacy, we are constantly training new technicians who may or may not stay in the profession for more than a few months.
Not that money would solve all the problems here, but I agree with others’ posts I have read, that more training and higher pay would keep loyal and satisfied technicians who would care about their job and care whether or not they make mistakes.
Pharmacy technicians are the core to any well run pharmacy. So why is the typical hire-in rate of $8 and hour acceptable on any level?!

Just today I was band from ever picking up a prespcription at a local CVC pharmacy because my father-in-law refused to sign some kind of waiver. The waiver stated “NO, I do not wish to speak to the pharmacist about my perscription”. Which is not something my father-in-law was comfortable with. The pharmacist told my father-in-law that it was illegal for him not to sign this peice of paper. The pharmacist later called me and informed me that I was no longer allowed to pick up any perscriptions from that particular pharmacy! He was extremely rude and disrespectful. Is there anything that can be done?
Marwa

to kelly–why on EARTH would you ask for no generics! you WANT to waste your money? Also your experience SHOWS why the pharmacies have a bad name right now. the customer has to have it NOW, have it right, and THEIR way. Sorry Kelly, a pharmacy is NOT Burger King. you get what the DOCTOR wrote for and THAT’s IT! did you ASK the pharmacy if they were ordering the EpiPen for you to pick up the next day? they they tel you where it WAS available? At the pharmacy where i work, that’s what we do in such a situation.
to 20/20–I hope you realize how one-sided your story was! I hope you realize that what is needed is a standardized education and training of the technicians (such as in my state of washington) and we need bigger or more classes of pharmacists as the shortage of pharmacists is what is driving the pharmacies to use so many techs. I also want to EMPHASIZE that by FEDERAL law ONLY the PHARMACIST can COUNSEL the PATIENTS! the technician can tell where the cold remedy section is in the store, but they can’t tell you which one to take!

a couple of years ago i had a nasty eye infection and got a scrip for some kind of drops. i unwrapped it in the car so i could dose right away and get rid of the icky illness…i put a drop in my eye and thought i was going to go blind. EAR DROPS!
i flushed my eye with my bottled water and went back into RITE-AID and pointed out to the pharmacist that OTO means ear.

After being in the legal profession, as a legal assistant, for about 20 years (medical malpractice law), I was shocked to find out about the way prescriptions are being handled in major drug stores. My heart goes out to the woman who has to care for her brain damaged child for the rest of her life. I found it difficult to hold back the tears to discover how careless some business get when it comes down to profit over human life.

I am a Walgreens pharmacist. I went into this field in order to help people. I really really care for any patient like I would do for my own family. I want the customers to know that yes there are errors and we are so sorry that these things happen, we try to be very sympathetic and realize that we have to live with these mistakes in our hearts for the rest of our lives. But we also fill many prescriptions daily and go out of our way for many patients without thanks. It makes our job very difficult to be rushed with lines, phones, and upset customers. Please allow us the time to do your prescription. If we tell you there is a 3 hour wait it is because we have patient’s who have dropped off their prescriptions 2 hours ago that we are now working on to have them finished in 30 to 60 minutes. Each should have its own time for us to concentrate on.
Also, unfortunately I do agree with the fact the most technicians at retail stores are untrained. I have pushed this on our supervisors and they sometimes respond for a brief period of time to this, but when we hire a technician/cashier they are normally put on drive-thru, the busiest part of the pharmacy. These people do not actually get the training they deserve before they are “thrown into the lion’s den”. They are expected to just pick up and learn instead of being trained one on one with an experienced technician. Also the technicians are not being paid fairly. They can go to Mcdonalds and start at the same pay. I hope that these retail companies will change this problem. It is unfair to our employees.
Please know that you can trust your pharmacists. No matter how busy it is… just tell us how much you appreciate our hard work. This makes our job 100% better. We want to help you and make you better. We are one human family. We must work together.

To Arthur and his wife…
We thank you thank you thank you for your comments. This is what we love about our job as pharmacists. WE ARE HERE TO HELP YOU!!!! Thanks for your support

I think this is a hugely one-sided argument. Pharmacists that I work with are very caring and very willing to come and speak with patients regarding medicines and any possible interactions that may happen. If people didn’t expect the pharmacy department to work as fast as McDonald’s does, then maybe the overall number of errors in America wouldn’t be happening the way that they have been. Where I work the signing for your prescriptions is electronic. It is simply a record of who picks up what medicines. Date and time. That’s it… it doesn’t mean that you are signing away your right to counsel with the pharmacist. Nothing you sign in a pharmacy takes away that right. Under Federal Law you are guarenteed the right to counsel with a pharmacist and when you sign for a prescriptioin it’s just proof of record of who signed for your medication.

There is absolutely NO REASON to defend pharmacists to be defended in this matter. They get paid very well for what they do. I am very sensitive to this issue, as the Rite Aid pharmacy gave me the incorrect seizure tablets. I was given DOUBLE the reccommended dosage that was perscribed by my neurologist. I called the pharmacy after I got home because they looked different, and spoke to the pharmacist who INSISTED that they were the correct pills. For two days I took them and had horrible side effects. I called the pharmacist and he said that the were 400mg, when that medication doesn’t even come in that size. Lukily nothing SERIOUS happened to me. My neurologist reccomended that I go back to Rite Aid and request the “incident report” which they REFUSED to give to me. Upon going further up the chain of command, the corporate office told me they were “sorry” and that “if it ever happened again they would ream their asses” WORD FOR WORD THAT IS WHAT THEY SAID TO ME. I made a complaint with the State of Michigan and they were the ONLY ones to show deep concern and seriousness about this incident. And you can bet that pharmacies do NOT report their errors. Why would they create a track record for themselves? Luckily I had all the proof I needed to make a complaint and the pharmacist was repremanded for his mistake. And now it is on his permanent record that he screwed up. You know, I probably woulnd’t have even reported it if Rite Aid had shown more concern for messing up my SEIZURE meds. And to all of you defending the “poor pharmacists” who make these “oopsie” mistakes. You are putting peoples lives at risk here. Just like doctors. If you can’t take the heat get out of the kitchen and quit whining. You can bet if your child had Leukemia (by the way my cousin lost his life to Leukemia at the age of 12 in 2005) that you would be upset too. How are WE supposed to know what our medication is “supposed” to look like if we’ve never taken it before? COME ON NOW. THAT IS YOUR JOB NOT THE PATIENTS. And you’re making it seem like us asking you perscription questions is a hassle? Another thing, when I went to rite aid, I never ONCE was able to read the screen that said, “I have been counseled by the pharmacist” la la la. They always CHECKED it for me to rush me out of there and then made me sign it. Get over yourselves. These are peoples lives you are putting in your hands. Cry me a river I do not feel sorry for you. On the other hand, I have a wonderful pharmacist at a locally owned pharmacy who is absolutely wonderful and is willing to acknowledge I’m there, even though he is very busy.

I work for Walgreens as a pharmacist and I just wanted to let you know of my “stats” today. I saw approximately 100 prescriptions come my way this afternoon. Of those, I had to make calls to doctors on ten of those prescriptions (10%)due to either the prescription being illegible, or, a clarification needed regarding the strength/directions. One of the calls was for a child who had a documented allergy to erythromycin. He was prescribed azithromycin, another antibiotic with a very similar chemical structure. When confronted, the nurse at the doctor’s office stated that they did not have the allergy to erythromycin listed. The doctor decided to change to a different antibiotic based on this intervention. AND THESE THINGS HAPPEN ON A DAILY BASIS. Think about it, just at Walgreens alone, a drug allergy or interaction issue is encountered just about every day which the pharmacist intervenes on. That’s AT LEAST 6000 times per day Walgreens’ pharmacists call a doctor’s office to prevent a potentially dangerous situation! I also counseled several people over the phone regarding their own health – two of which admitted that they don’t even fill prescriptions at Walgreens! But I answered their questions anyway. I also answered about a half dozen questions regarding OTC medications and supplements today. I even explained the rationale for using Methadone in addiction treatment to a patient who previously failed Suboxone (a drug used to treat people addicted to strong pain medicaions)because his “specialist” didnt’ have the time to explain it to him. My favorite call today, though, was a patient who told me that they knew they had no refills left on their medication. Yet, they wanted me to track down their doctor at 6:30 p.m. on the Friday before Easter!!! I politely explained that it is not my responsibility, rather, it is the patient’s responsibility to be proactive in their own health care to contact the physician when they need refills on medications. But the nice guy I am, I said I would gladly give them enough medicine to hold them over through the weekend til Monday. No matter what day of the week it is, CHASING DOWN DOCTORS FOR REFILLS IS NOT THE JOB OF THE PHARMACY – IT IS THE PATIENTS. That’s all for now.

Why isnt the same invasive investigation being conducted on the mis-written prescriptions by prescribers? Most Pharmacy techs make less than factory workers and fast food employees and 20/20 wants them to take responcibility for your medications?! I am a pharmacist and will be the first to tell you that there is no cover up. Pharmacist must report errors to any company that they work for and it is almost impossible to hide an error. Many people in the pharmacy usually know about each error and corporate is notified about each one. There is no, i wont tell if you wont tell in pharmacies either. Each tech and pharmacist is constantly scared to death that they could make and error and hurt someone so each error or potental error is analyzed to see if there are things that we can improve on. The stress and anxiousness is one of the major reasons why pharmacist are in the top 3 professions for numbers of suicide each year according to morbidity and mortality weekly.
Also preceived “errors” are caused by patients and other healthcare professionals not giving the pharmacist the whole information.
DICK APR 6 at 4:33 you tell us that you were on Warfarin but how can you ask us to make a clinical discission about a drug to drug interaction if you dont tell us WHAT THE ANTIBIOTIC WAS!?
This is an exacting example of the mis/disinformation that pharmacist have to put up with all of the time and then are asked to make clinical discissions that can hurt or kill someone. When we double check the info then we get bitched at for being to slow, and if we dont these are the same people that will sue you and ruin your life for their carelessness about their own healthcare.

My daughter was hospitalized as a result of a pharmacist’s error. She was given a prescription for a medication to control asthma. The dosage instructions were: One teaspoonful 2x a day”. The pharmacist did not have the correct strength so he gave me double strength and changed the instructions to “Once a day”. But when the medication was refilled, the dosage was still double but the original instructions were put back “twice a day”. The medication built up in her blood and we ended up having a transfusion.
On a separate occasion I was given prescription Benedryl in place of prescription Dimetapp. I caught the error before my daughter took the medication. When I called the pharmacy, the phamacist disputed my claim and told me that “Dimetapp came in fruit flavors too.” But they asked me to bring back both prescriptions and corrected the error.
FYI – That pharmacist later lost his licence.

Hey 20/20…you have opened a big can of worms with this one!!! Good for you!!!
I am a Cardiovascular Intensive Care Nurse with over 15 yrs experience recovering Open Heart/ Coronary Bypass patients in several major medical facilities in various States of the US. I can be very objective as I am a
Canaidian-trained Registered Nurse & cannot believe what I have seen over the last 10 yrs.
I am outraged at most of these comments that have been posted by Pharmacists & Pharmacy technicians re: medication errors. It is absolutely inexcusable to defend any person…Pharmacist, Pharmacy Tech, Nurse, Physician, Nurse Practitioner,EMS, or any member of the medical field for a medication error!!!!!
There are many safe-guards in place in hospitals(and increasing by the minute)to avoid human error with patients. The technology is out there.I guess the questions is… are the “For-profit” Pharmacy’s such as Walgreen’s, Walmart,Erckerd’s,etc…willing to spend the $$$ for patient safety or ignore patient safety to make the “all-mighty” buck????

IT WOULD BE FAIR IF 20/20 WOULD DO A REPORT ON WHAT REALLY HAPPENS IN THE PHARMACY. THE REPORT DONE WAS VERY ONE-SIDED. I THINK IT’S FAIR TO SHOW HOW PHARMACISTS SPEND TIME CARING FOR PEOPLE, BALANCING THEIR TIME AND PHYSICAL EFFORTS TO CATER TO PEOPLE’S NEED. THAT WOULD BE NICE. PHARMACISTS ARE IMPORTANT HEALTH PROFESSIONALS IN OUR SOCIETY. WE ARE ALL NOT MAKING CARELESS MISTAKES.

I am a pharmacy tech for walgreens and I think it is crap that this report targeted walgreens. Why not any other pharmacy out there. Everyone makes mistaked even pharmacists. We are all human…we make mistakes. Yes it is tragic that those things happened to those people and there families, but things happen. I have worked in the pharmacy for 3 years and I have NEVER worked with someone that didn’t have a high school diploma. I have NEVER worked with a teenage, high school student. We all try our best to double check our work and make sure that there are no mistakes. Some things do slip through but get caught before the prescriptions go out to the patients. We are quite a busy store at times and the customers don’t help the stress level when they are demanding that their prescriptions be done right then and there. I have patients yell at me alot because we can’t get their prescription ready in 5 minutes. We need time to make sure we have the right patient, drug, strength and directions. If we don’t have the time to do this, mistakes may happen. People that have never worked in a pharmacy don’t understand that it is stressful and the workers need time to fill the prescription, pharmacists need time to be able to check the rx for correctness. This is a rush,rush society and people expect pharmacies to run like a fast food place…sorry we can’t do that. They should want the pharmacist to take his time and make sure everything is correct. These pills are going into their bodies and can potentially harm them if not the right drug or strength….if they value their health they should give us the time needed to fill their prescription correctly……

20/20….99.9 % of pharmacist do the work load of 5 people day after day..8-10 ten to 12 hour days straight…caring, for as in retail all to often impatient, disrespectful public…the few techs we are allowed by the chains are angels of mercy for $12. bucks or less an hour…we all are cursed…screamed at…for issues beyond our control…in fact not alot is in our control…we can not stop the ringing of the 5 lines of phones…the bells and customers in the 3- 5 drive thrus…the 3 open windows with people at arms length,,,the store manager in your face yelling cause a phone line did not get answered,, we can not control your anger because your insurance copay went up or your free rx from the goverment stopped…we can not control the masses of people who arrive and all who are sick and want their rx in 5 minutes instead of the 30-45 it will take…we can not tell you why you went to the dr. we can not control the fact that we do not have the staff to comfort and advise you as in your dr. office which has your medical tests…we can not control the fact that your dr. did not write the rx so we can read it and we must call him we can not guess….we can not control the fact that we can not reach the dr, asap…we can not control the fact that you have no refills and did not call the dr. yourself before showing up to pick up the med….we can not control the fact that you do not carry your insurance card on you….we can not control the fact that you did not ask your dr. while you paid for one on one contact with him what is wrong with you and why is he giving you chemicals for what purpose…..we can not control the fact that chains are run like taco bells…get your beans in 5 minutes..we can not control the fact that the chains treat pharmacists like robots who do not need to take breaks…of any kind bathroom or what the heck is lunch!!! we can not control the fact that we are burned out of years and years of 10-14 hour days 8-10 days in a row of assembly line production work of move it move it,,move it……we are working for corp. ceos who expect production at all costs….to increase…what is your date of birth???? do you want to wait or come back….??? move it move it…has nothing to do with healthcare….in the middle of the 100 th phone call to verify dose…drug has been recalled….did the dr write viagra or vibramycin call call… we have no control over the fact we must mutitask and do 50 very important things at once that are urgent for the patient s safety…drive thru wants rph to get them tylenol and fleets….dr. line 1 and 2…store pageing rph on their line….got 30 rx to check in 5 min….only 6 more non stop hours to go…….20/20 you have only begone on this journey….move it move it to the corp. ring…they have set up difficult high speed stage with an impatient audience….we as pharmacist are trying to make sure each and every time the patient is given the correct med and the correct dose….we are also trying hard to do it with some dignity in the mist of a circus at taco bell….chains have changed the face of pharmacy…..Is your doctors or dentist office run like a taco bell??????????would you want it to be?????? the patients are the best part of the day…thats what we care about most…..be kind, be respectful of your pharmacist …..we are really doing so much for you …you do not even know…….how much we care about your health and safety and how we try so hard to make it right every day ……………..

Some people’s job have several coffee breaks, smoke breaks, phone breaks , whatever breaks…etc. Pharmacy people have altogether 1 hour break. Some patients are just plain silly thinking a drugstore is like McDonalds. Some people go to the pharmacy counter and ask where the eyedrops are, cough syrups & condoms etc…Are these people simply No Read, No Write?
America is sooo dumb. Their politicians have lunch meetings and such and such luxury whereas the people who cares and manages their health are always asked: can you fill my precription in 5-10 minutes,please (with either an arrogant face or sorry face)? People who wants to mix their drugs and alcohol – there’s like millions of those out there! Yes, a lot of people too blame the pharmacy for their stupid co-pays! It’s their insurance, not the techs or pharmacists! Most often the people who rush, tends to die soon as well.
I guess 20/20 staff did a good.
By not showing everything.

I was not able to watch this segment on T.V., but was told about this story by a co-worker and friend who is a pharmacist. I am also a pharmacy technician at a chain pharmacy. I do agree with points made by each side. The chain
pharmacy I work at has a low pharmacist to tech ratio. They try to minimize the number of workers to save profit. If they had two pharmacists working at the same time they would be paying more than if they had more technicians working who are paid much less. At my pharmacy there is usually one technician and one pharmacist working. There would be times when patients come by non-stop for hours. It gets very stressful. There is no excuse for pharmacy error and I have read about the people who were affected by them. No family should have to go through that because a pharmacy made a mistake. The pharmacy pushes wait time accuracy when it is not humanely possible. One technician cannot be at 3 places at once. But the company won’t give more hours so that another technician can work.
Many patients appreciate what pharmacy technicians and pharmacists do. I can see it when they ask pharmacists for advice or when they show gratitude for what we’ve done. We do go out of our way to help patients. Many technicians I know feel over-worked, underpaid, and unappreciated. The story also made it seem like only high school students work in the pharmacy. I don’t know which pharmacies they went to, but many of the pharmacies I’ve worked at there are mainly college students working as technicians.
Patients should also be responsible for their medications. Some patients do not even know what they’re taking which is scary. They don’t even know the names of their medication or what dosage they should be taking. I cannot read minds nor do I know what every patient takes. Every prescription comes with a patient leaflet that has information about the medication such as possible side affects, what they should or should not take with the medication, and other facts. Should patients have a concern or question they can ALWAYS call a pharmacist. Patients, educate yourselves. Pharmacists are more than happy to consult patients.

I don’t blame the pharmacists, I blame the doctors and other medical professionals who write prescriptions like a chicken walked over a page.
WHY isn’t there a law that ALL DOCTORS be required to TYPE prescriptions?
Is crappy handwriting a sign of good medicine? I hardly think so. How stupid is it for my doctor to save my life, just to have me die of an accidental overdose because he was too damn vain to write legibly?
Hippocrates said “first do no harm”. If doctors don’t want to make their prescriptions legible, then GET THE HELL OUT OF THE BUSINESS.

As a certified pharmacy technician for over 5 years now, I would like to clarify a few things:
1) Asking a patient if they have any questions regarding their prescription is MANDATED by law and, in some chains, if the patient does not have any questions, he/she MUST sign a paper stating that they dont.
2)The pharmacist the the one who, ultimately, is responsible for making sure the presciption dispened is correct, and that the directions correlate properly. [after all, he/she is the one who went to school for 6+ years]..SO STOP BLAMING THE TECHNICIANS!!
3)If customers would’nt come into these stores acting as if we were flippin burgers back in the pharmacy and their wait should be 5, 10 minutes max…then maybe this would help with eliminating some of the errors experienced. Would you go to a Dr’s office demanding that kind of wait? I highly doubt it. Have some respect for the pharmacy profession…
4) Dr’s office’s have a lot to do with pharmacy malpractice. Yes, it is the pharmacy’s responsibilty to dispense the correct medication and directions, and in many cases we try our BEST to do that. However, if a dr/nurse/office staff writes or calls in a prescription that really looks or sounds like something else, mistakes happen. If the rx is questionable, we try to contact the dr’s office, which, by the way, in some cases takes over 3 – 5 days as the nurses never seem to be around or call back. However, if the way the dr intends to write for Relafen, but it looks virtually exactly like Robaxin, are we supposed to be psyics and know that he just doesnt know how to write?
I am sorry if I sound cruel or harsh but the one-sided, biased nature of this report really concerns me. 20/20 is turning into proganda type news–which we have WAYY to much of these days. As many of my fellow collueges have already stated, come live a day in our shoes. Come see what behing the counter is really like..and maybe you’ll gain some more respect for us. Im sorry if sour incounters, or allegedly sour ones at least, has left a bad taste in your mouth, but please know that there are many pharmacy employees out there that TRULY care about our customers and what nothing but to make them happy and educated.

Let me start this by saying that any, ANY mistake that causes harm/death to a patient is horrible. I am a pharmacy student and a pharmacy tech and this 20/20 special is an awful, one-sided depiction of what goes on within the pharmacy, or the healthcare system as a whole.
The main responsibility of a pharmacist includes counseling patients and ensuring that the correct, safe, and most-efficacious medication gets to the patient in order to heal/maintain/improve quality of life. The responsibility of the technician is to assist the pharmacist. They do NOT counsel patients and they do NOT dispense medication that has not been verified by the pharmacist. They (we) do not hold degrees in the field of pharmacy, whether that be a Doctorate (PharmD) or a Bachelor’s (BS) in Pharmacy practice. They do the jobs of typing in new scripts and dispensing the drug, as well as deal with the monetary exchange. NONE of these things go on without being run through the pharmacist. The flow of work is as follows: A patient drops off a prescription, the tech types the prescription per their physician. Next the pharmacist verifies that the script is indeed correct for the right drug/dose/patient. After this, the tech, or the pharmacist obtains said drug and fills the prescription. It is then checked YET AGAIN through the pharmacist before reaching the hands of the patient.
Speaking to their 100 fake script experiment, this is also a complete slant. First off, 100? That’s a tiny sample size and is completely irrelevant. Second, most of those employees ringing up the “patient” for the aspirin and warfarin were NOT pharmacists. They were techs. They do not know, nor are allowed to counsel on an interaction. At my pharmacy, we are required to offer, “Did you have any questions for the pharmacists?” We don’t sign away the right to receive counseling by any means
This special is incredibly misleading on the way the pharmacy functions. The age/education of the pharmacy tech should not matter because their tasks are all overseen by the pharmacist. This constant reference to “Everyone having white coats back there,” or “You don’t know who is working back there,” are all misleading. The color of the coat should not matter. The pharmacist is the pharmacist and the tech is the tech. If you want to speak to the pharmacist, just ask. Also, there are drug tests and constant training for the technician, so they ARE able to fill a prescription bottle with pills. This requires minimal training. A pharmacist’s job requires so much more.
Yes, the system in place at most pharmacies, while a good system, does allow for an error to fall through the cracks from time to time. But there is no such thing as perfection in any walk of life, including pharmacy practice.
This 20/20 episode shed NO light on the many lives that pharmacists make better. Although the error rate is very low, it’s still not enough. We will always strive for less and less errors, but again, humans make mistakes.
Remedies to this problem? Electronic/Typed prescriptions! It is completely ridiculous that we have high-tech systems and whatnot involved within the healthcare system, yet we rely on pen and paper that is BARELY legible. We also would call upon the customers. With the horrendous invention of the “Drive-Thru” pharmacy, the customers have been shown that pharmacy is much like a fast-food restaurant. If there is even a 10 minute wait, customers become aggravated and demand the prescription right away with an ignorant statement much like, “Why is it going to take so long? Just put the pills in a vial and I’ll be on my merry way.” We need patience from the patients. The public needs to be educated on how important the role of the pharmacist truly is! We do not simply throw pills into a bottle and call it a day! We are the last line of the healthcare system. (As well as first-line in many ways: first line, FREE healthcare information and advice). It has been said that if a patient is on at least 7 medications simultaneously, there is a 99% chance that there is SOME sort of interaction between these chemicals. Whether that be a dangerous interaction is for the pharmacist to discern using vast knowledge about drugs and using references to apply that knowledge to the situation at hand.
Next time you have a question you feel a physician can answer, I encourage you to ask a pharmacist for their advice. Their knowledge of prescription and over the counter disease/drug therapy, drug interactions, and general health is a great resource that should be utilized.

It seems this show has generated an animated discussion. Has ABC News thought of developing a longer segment related to this issue to perhaps address some of the above comments?

You spent “4 months” on this investigation, yet your report is full of lies and misleading information. I would like ABC and Mr. Ross to get every side to the story and get the facts straight before releasing on public television, what I found to be a bunch of crap news. I would like to ask ABC, is this bit of TV news really for the benefit of patients/viewers, or is it for RATINGS. Are you people at ABC not at the same fault when you misinform and lie to the public?!
There are several different staff members that work in the pharmacy. When you check out at the front counter, it will usually be a pharmacy technician. Pharmacy TECHS are NOT allowed to give advice or counseling to patients. It is something you would called ILLEGAL. If the patients would like to be counseled, then the pharmacist will so give them that…and the technicians are suppose to ask the patients if they need it before hand.
Secondly, your report seems to mostly focus on Walgreens pharmacy. I also find that poor reporting, considering there are a number of other major chain pharmacies out there you did not happen to mention in your biased news report

I have worked for many of the leaders of retail pharmacy in America. I have been a pharmacist for over 30 years and currently a Pharmacy Supervisor for the largest Pharmacy Chain in the US. The errors that are occuring are horrible. They happen very often and the chains are not VERY concerned. They only want the number of rxs to increase. They only want the customer surveys to look great. They want your numbers to look great. They don’t give enough help to the pharmacists who sometimes do not get a break or even a chance to go to the bathroom. They don’t care how many hours the pharmacists are working. Many times, pharmacists go from store to store including overnights to keep the stores open but the errors are happening.

DAVE APR 3, loved it!! fantastic way of showing our job and what it consists of! I dont understand when a person walks in a PHARMACY and expects us to know their formulary, their copays, their deductables, and even their premiums!! You should have found ALL of this out before you signed up for the plan!!!

I did not choose Walgreens as my pharmacy, I chose a private pharmacist who after many, many years closed shop and went to work for Walgreens transferring all of his clients records with him, without giving us a choice. On April 3 I attempted to renew a prescription, after a week of being lied to and given the run around I still do not have my heart pills. My Dr.’s Office never got the fax that was sent multiple times.
I’ve emailed Walgreens I’ve spoken to a manager. When I filled a prescription last month for an antibiotic, the pharmacist gave me incorrect instructions. I was told to take with food. Well the instructions for this antibiotic said to take on an empty stomach. I’m not sure about other Walgreens but the one here in Fallon, Nevada Doesn’t care. I can handle mistakes, but I can’t handle being lied to. We only have one private pharmacist left in this town and 3 other chains. There needs to be a recourse, there is for Dr.’s. If a Dr messes up, or neglects his patient you can file a complaint with the board, same goes for lawyers and just about any other profession. Who do phamacies answer to?
I just hope I can get my heart pills before I end up in the hospital, will Walgreens care? I doubt it.

My husband works for Walgreens as a pharmacy manager so I hear about alot that goes on at work. I have taken him lunch (Pharmacists don’t get lunch or dinner breaks or snack breaks) before and seen people become irate when their prescription was not ready. Never mind that the wonderful technology our world depends on was not working or that there was 30 people in front of that person, they wanted their prescription right then. A pharmacy is not like a fast food restaurant. A lot of work goes into making sure prescriptions are right.
Secondly, the pharmacist isn’t the one who sets the price for your drugs, the insurance companies do that. I have heard people complain because their copay went up from $20 to $30. That is not the fault of the pharmacist, why yell at them. Next, don’t be rude to pharmacists. They know you are sick and don’t feel good but be patient. It is a virtue you know. Also, the doctor’s office doesn’t call in your prescription as soon as you leave the office. They usually call them in twice a day, at lunch and at the end of the day.

didnt Ross and his team break major HIPPA privacy laws by bringing hidden cameras into the pharmacys????
maybe someone should do an undercover report on biased/unethical reporting by news networks….just a thought…

As a nationally certified pharmacy technician for 5 years, I take strong objection to the biased report 20/20 recently aired. While I acknowledge that prescription errors do occur, they are the exception rather than the norm. I find it interesting your report chose to focus on the mistakes pharmacies make as opposed to the mistakes the pharmacies catch that physicians make when writing a prescription for a patient which includes questionable high doses of medications, questionable amounts of controlled medications and major drug-drug interactions.
As pharmacy technician in a retail pharmacy, I have a pharmacist who checks and doubles checks the prescription before releasing it to me to give to the patient. The pharmacist also double checks the records at the end of their shift before filing the records. I also have dealt with patients who are annoyed that they should have to wait 20 minutes for a prescriptions because in their opinion our job is not that difficult or demanding. In the words of one patient outraged by the fact she had to wait 20 minutes for a prescription, ” All you have to do is slap a label on a box, its not like your job is hard, any moneky could do it.”
This attitude coupled with more and more insurance companies requiring the use of mail order pharmacies for routine medications does place an enormous burden on the pharmacy staff. Your report also failed to point out that a customer’s desire to constantly save money i.e. coupons for gift cards given for new or transferred prescriptions promotes errors since pharmacies are unable to keep accurate records of a patient’s drug history.

1) why is the focus on the pharmacy technician? just because many pharmacy technicians are high schoolers doesn’t mean they can’t perform their job. It’s funny because the average “mature” person would fail the pharmacy tech exam…most can’t even do simple math
2) do you expect the pharmacist to check out your groceries too? Pharm tech knows little about drug interactions and are not permitted to counsel. Go ask your grocery cashier if aspirin is right for you. This just shows how little 20/20 “investigators” know about pharmacy.
3) who is really behind medication errors? its the patient!
Can you wait hours like you do for the dentist so that you get the “same level of care as the patient ahead of you”?
Can you afford an extra $10 so that pharmacies can hire additional staff to counsel you?
Do you know what the insurance companies pay for the pharmacy staff for their service?

In quick response to the person who posted saying pharmacies have to report their errors to the board of pharmacies. This is completely UNTRUE. Until my story aired in the summer of 2005, my state, Massachusetts, did not require that pharmacy errors be reported. This was all in response to a situation where I was given Toprol XL (a blood pressure reducing medication) instead of Topamax (a medication for my bipolar disorder). The bottle said Topamax, but the pills inside were Toprol. It was a new medication and so i didn’t know the difference, until I stopped breathing in my sleep one night. CVS Pharmacy reported “errors are rare” when in reality, they aren’t. Just last week, it happened again when I was given some other Rebecca’s thyroid medication (Levoxyl), instead of my anti-nausea medication (Compazine). I can see why the other side would be defensive, but the night I was taken to the ER when I stopped breathing, I called the pharmacy. The pharmacist who filled it told me “It’s no big deal, you’ll be fine, just call your doctor in the morning.” He was allowed to continue working the night shift UNSUPERVISED. I was employed with CVS Pharmacy for four years, so i’ve been on the other side of the counter. I know what is REQUIRED, but the reality of the situation is, these things aren’t being fulfilled.

As a five year pharmacy technician, all I can say to 20/20 is SHAME ON YOU for being so biased

It is unfortunate mistakes happen. As a pharmacist, it is the last thing we want to happen. Yes, our employers try to minimize distractions (phones ringing) with help from the technicians) and errors (by installing new technology), but ultimately it can happen. We are only humans. As far as the segment about young high school technicians, age does not matter! I have worked with very smart and meticulous young technicians and 40+ year old technician who didn’t have a clue.

As a 6th year pharmacy student about to graduate in 3 weeks, I was very disappointed in this report. Mistakes happen and that is very unfortunate. I am sorry for these patient’s who have had bad experiences but this is not how it is everywhere and at every Walgreens. I have worked for Walgreens for almost 8 years and they have come a long way in improving technology to try to prevent human error. The general public does not know about medications, we know that. I still feel like patients can still try to take the initiative and become involved in their own health care as well. This begins at the doctor’s office and should continue at the pharmacy. ALWAYS ask any questions about medications. ALWAYS ask the doctor what he is prescribing the medication for. I started in a pharmacy when I was 16 years old and at 16 I felt I was more competent then some technicians that were in their 30′s. I thought the segment on that part was very deceiving because it seemed like the medication was being dispensed without a pharmacist being there. This does NOT happen at our Walgreens, nor any other. I hope this segment will encourage patients to take their health seriously and also encourage pharmacist to prove this segment wrong and really show people how much of a difference we actually do make each day.

Everyone seems to have an excuse, either it’s the pharmacist handwriting or the 16 year-old aide wasn’t trained, but what about the young 8 year-old girl and all the others who’ll never be the same, what excuse do you tell them or their families, they are no excuses.