News report on safety in pharmacy

I write down the name of the drug before handing over a prescription to compare it to the label when I get the rx. Too many people just accept what is handed to them without looking. And if you are not sure about the drug, there are websites that will detail the drug shape and color.

I'm not saying it's all the patient's responsibility, I'm saying that we have to take some responsiblility for our health. And if mistakes are continually made by the same pharmacy, complain loudly  and change pharmacy's

After reading stories about pharmacy mistakes I always double check pills online before we take them.

I have to agree-it's part of the world we live in now, and it sucks, but we can't turn back the clock, can we? So what do we do? We take our part of the responsibility that we can in it and check our prescriptions every time they are filled. It isn't that difficult, especially these days with the Internet. Can you imagine trying to do this 15 years ago before the Internet was in place by just using a book?

Even if you don't get paper prescriptions anymore (and what's up with that, I guess it's different in different areas, but where I live we still get them) your doctor tells you he is giving you a prescription for X. Ask him how to spell it and write it down or key it into your smart phone. That way you know what it is that your doctor has prescribed for you. I personally have a terrible memory and carry a tiny journal with me everywhere that I make notes in (I don't have a smart phone yet, don't need one).

Once you get home from the pharmacy, check your medication before you take it for the first time just to be sure. We should be doing this anyway, because an accident can happen at anytime, not just now when they are overworked.

Personally at least around here I've haven't found CVS to be that bad. We usually use our local Giant Food store pharmacy (and they are annoying because they never have anything in stock and always have to order everything)  but sometimes I'll use the CVS pharmacy in town because they have one that's open 24 hours. That really comes in handy sometimes! Especially when a migraine hits and I discover I'm out of my migraine meds.

Debbie in MD.

I have received the wrong pills before. Luckily it was a prescription I had taken on a regular basis so I knew when I saw the pills they were not the right ones. The bottle was mine, with the correct drug name on it but the pills were wrong. I immediately took it back to the pharmacy where I received an apology and they redid the prescription but I wondered for quite a while if they had traded my drug with another person's drug and if they corrected theirs as well. I believe they are pushed to do more with less, just like most people are in their jobs these days. It's all about productivity, how much can you do with the least amount of manpower. Why would pharmacists be any different, after all they are doing it in hospitals with nurses, replacing RNs with aides and just having RNs supervise them.

Lately my sister, who is a pharmacist, has been complaining of all the extra duties they are having to do as a result of Obamacare. She definitely has complained about the added pressure because of the expectations and shortcomings of the big chain she works for, but the added paperwork and duties from Obamacare has put the stress level completely over the top.

Sigh.   

I am a pharmacist.  Canadian.   One of the big negatives about retail pharmacy is the paperwork and insurance.  Lots of that.   The reason its a problem?   The customers all think their insurance is better than it is.  The customers don't know their own insurance.  Doctors write prescriptions for drugs that no insurance company in their right mind would pay for.  

Jodster, go to the drug monkey's blog.  Or Google "why your prescription takes so damned long to fill".  That is why there are so many problems.  It's not the paperwork.  It people didn't want their drugs in 2 seconds, the pressure would be off and there would be less mistakes.  Drive thru pharmacies are an abomination, filling a prescription should never be like fast food.  If it wasn't about speed at all costs, paperwork would not be a big problem.  This is not a political problem.  

The the reason the chains put on so much pressure?  The almighty dollar.  The shareholders want money so put those scripts through faster.  The customer wants it now or will go somewhere else so put those scripts through faster.  Do it fast, do it right and do it with little staff so that the shareholders don't have to pay wages to pharmacists, technicians and assistants.  

And now at CVS the pharmacy department also rings up your purchases as they dispense your meds. Then there's the surveys. I couldn't believe what I heard her say to another customer. "The survey will ask if the pharmacist discussed your prescription with you. He's not here but if he were here, he would have so please say that he did."

you are right Jodster, you don't need some random stranger's opinion. I worked retail for 19 years, 16 of them big box pharmacy. I got out 8 years ago and now work in a smaller cancer center. It's heaven. I don't worry about any insurance issues at all, what I do is provided through our health care system and we don't charge the patients. My only concerns is their support meds. Do they have drug coverage to help pay for them at their community pharmacy.

I stand by my assertation that the paperwork would not be a problem if people weren't so darned impatient. I want my drugs and I want them now. What do you mean it will take 30 minutes to fill 10 prescriptions? I'm old you know, I don't have time to wait (while the mom with 3 kids, one of whom has a raging ear infection just waits quietly). Big box pharmacy is all about numbers. Get them through, get them through fast. Insurance companies are all about denying claims. I think this situation is much worse in the US than it is in Canada from the pharmacist blogs I follow.

I am sure that adding a new insurance plan such as Obamacare adds to the load of paperwork. But if there wasn't the pressure to just go, go, go, get it done, done right and done right now, there would be time to do the paperwork. I do think the paperwork is out of control but I also think it's been getting worse slowly but steadily for a long time now.

If there wasn't the pressure of the almighty dollar, if it wasn't about maximizing profits for the shareholders to squeeze every last drop (cut staffing, enforce quotas, maximum wait times etc) then it would be much calmer in the pharmacy world. The paperwork involved with adjudicating Obamacare type claims may have gone up and caused a lot more work on that end but it still wouldn't be the issue that it is without the corporate culture that is going on.

As I said, this is not a political thing, it's an economics thing. Capitalism gone wild in some ways. If it wasn't all about increasing profits on a yearly basis then things would be better.

As an example of that, a major Canadian bank just cut a lot of jobs in Canada. Was the bank losing money? No! They made 7 billion dollars in profits last year. Doing the cuts saved them money of course....maximize that profit margin. At what point is enough profit enough? I would think 7 billion dollars in profits in a year should be enough for anybody or any company.

I took in a paper Rx to the pharmacy today. My doctor used to just use her digital signature but now she has both her digital and pen signature on it.

I would love to have a choice of pharmacies and choose one that is not owned by a large corporation that cares more about profits than lives, but my insurance dictates where I go. I pay out of pocket for my hormone replacement therapy because I have to get it at a compounding pharmacy, but fortunately it's only $42/month. To me, it's worth it because it makes me feel so much better than what I used to get from a regular pharmacy.

The other issue is that for maintenance meds, I am forced to go through CVS and get a 90 day supply. Well we just have one CVS in Arkansas, and it just opened a few months ago. It's not convenient to me at all, but I am just grateful to have a brick and mortar store to go to now. My only other option is CVS mail order, and with my travel schedule, my meds could sit in my mailbox for days. I live in the south. It can't be good to have meds in my mailbox when it's 100 degrees outside. I've been lucky enough so far that my only regular scripts were for the hormones, but now I have this neurological thing going on and I'll be taking daily meds for who knows how long. Got the letter from insurance last week that they won't pay for my next script unless I get the 90 day from CVS.

I have a friend that also started as a pharmacy tech in the USAF and is now a pharmacist at a compounding pharmacy.  She had worked in retail, but she said that it was no different than what she did as a pharmacy tech, just MORE responsibilities and less time to do it, and that was before the "Obamacare" stuff.

Other than one time picking up a painkiller and antibiotics when I had a tooth abcess, I am very willing to wait or to come back later. That one time, after the emergency root canal I went back and apologized for being a (rhymes with witch), I really felt worse when that pharmacy tech told me that "most customers are that way, not the ones in real distress."  And it was very rare that anyone ever apologized for it - ever.

More than one pharmacist or tech has educated me on the medications, including side effects and reactions to watch for; has kept me from mixing incompatible OTCs and prescriptions, and in a pinch, recommended an OTC remedy or medication that would hold me till I get in to see a medical practitioner.  What pharmacists and techs do is very important, life saving and vastly under appreciated!

Few years ago there were a few big mistakes that made the local news.  I started making sure I knew exactly what I was getting, name, dosing, etc.  I come home and make sure the pill matches  (can be checked online.)  A mistake can be deadly, not taking the chance.