ABC,

You're not covering the real underlying problem. While undertrained staff is surely a problem, it's the pressure and intense competition in pharmacy today that has lead to a perception; that a pharmacy is nothing more than a McDonalds for drugs. People's expectations are unrealistic and we get customers everyday that give the "deer in the headlights" look when you tell them their prescription may take more than 10 minutes. People have no clue what pharmacists have to deal with - we are more or less the red-headed stepchildren of healthcare. Insurance doesn't want to cover your drug? Oh, we'll let the pharmacist get drilled by the unhappy patient. Copay going up? Let the pharmacist be the grim reaper! Take a look in a busy pharmacy...it looks like a taco bell on a friday night (after a highschool football game). BUT, there is one differnce...pharmacists are not making burritos. Yet the expectation is essentially the same in the lay person's mind. Never seen an investigation on why pharmacists do not get a lunch break in almost every pharmacy in the nation. Yep, most pharmacists in the retail setting have a burger in one hand and are answein calls with the other (bathroom breaks, who needs 'em!). Cover than ABC and I'll at least feel like this is a fair story for us pharmacists out there...some of the best, most genuine people in difficult circumstances. This is not an excuse, but it provides a more complete context for this error reporting issue.

THE SAME SITUATION AT CVS. COMPANY WOULD MUCH RATHER PAY MIN. WAGE THAN PAY FOR EXP.

This happens more than Walgren's is telling. I use to be a faithful user of Walgren's pharmacy in Grand Prairie Texas until they doubled my Blood Pressure medicine. After taking them all and getting another refill I questioned them and their attitude was you didn't die oh well. I was refused their corp information when asked. This happened to me several years ago.

My husband received a prescription where the directions were to take "vaginally." The pharmicist was from an Asian country and could not understand or speak enough English to comprehend when he was questioned. Needless to say we don't use that pharmacy or that entire chain anymore!

This morning your reporter said on Good Morning America that pharmacies *never* tell you that when you sign to get your prescription you are waiving your rights to a consultation.

On the contrary, I have never picked up a prescription at a pharmacy and *not* had the person ask if I wanted more information and to sign here if I didn't.

I realise some pharmacies probably don't tell some patients that they're signing to say they refuse a consult. But it's hardly all the pharmacies all the time.

Patients also should check their prescription lable against what the doctor prescribed every time.

Millions of prescriptions are filled every day. It's inevitable that some few will have mistakes no matter how well trained the people are. Patients checking their own prescriptions will cut down on those mistakes not being caught.

Stop trying to get EVERYONE TO PANIC!

Before you roast this young lady for this where was the pharmacist who was suppose to over see this prescription? It was his job to double check that it was correct.

My daughter-in-law was given incorrect medication at a Walgreen's in Tennessee. She was to have been given a foot fungus medicine and what she got made her very ill. We were lucky that time but that was not the first time I got incorrect medicine or dose at a Walgreen's. Noone but registered pharmacists have any business filling presciptions.

For Walgreens to say 'we regret the few errors. . .' is adding insult to injury.

I would be so insulted by this remark if I had lost a loved one.

We don't this minimized; we need it STOPPED! IMMEDIATELY!

When studying to be a pharmacist, students should be required to work at least one year as a technician before they could be licenced as a pharmacist. This would be much like MD's serving as interns.

I would just like to say that within this article it is stated, "Walgreens is the country's biggest pharmacy and recently reported record profits." Walgreens is not the largest pharmacy chain. The largest pharmacy chain is CVS/Pharmacy

The person for the blame is the pharmacy.They should have had good since enough to check behind her.She was only a high-school student and 16yrs.old.Now how do tht make them look?I understand they gave her a chance at a job because she was young ,but that was their responsibility to help and watch behind her.

When I was in college the tendency was to hire students away from Pharmacy programs before they graduated. Now they haven't even finished high school? I am appalled.

Walgreens errors are not few. I have caught several mistakes they have made filling both mine and my families prescriptions. I tell everyone go to a mom and pop store, they still take insurance, you get better customer service and their employees, (who are usually only one or two) are better trained and watched. When it comes to things such as medications, I have found that a local person is a lot more careful than the big chains who will employ just about anybody.

I just have a few things to say. My son is a pharmacy tech. He works two jobs. One at Pacific Care in Oceanside and the other at CVS in Vista. The job he does in Oceanside is working with Doctor's and there staff over the phone in the injectable department. To my understanding this position is very professal, stressfull at times but he does not deal with the public. The job at CVS he says is joke. The staff and the pharmacist are not professionl at all. They also let the employee's from different department's help when they get busy. My son did not go to pharmacy school. He graduated with honors from high scholl. From there he got a book and studyed for 3 or 4 months. Went and took he's pharmacy tech test, passed with flying colors. My point is, retail pharmacy's are a joke. I would never have any of my prescriptions filled at any of the retail pharmacy's. When I do have a RX filled I do go to Costco.

I live in 3 states throughout the year and depend upon Walgreens, since I am asmatic and need 3 different drugs to control my condition. In the past year, the service has become appalling, particularly in Florida and Vermont. Rudeness abounds; unanswered messages for prescriptions; wrong answers as to a precription being unable to be filled.

After reading this article, may switch to a small pharmacy in Lexington, KY, that is conscientious. I pay a bit more to ship prescriptions to the location applicable, but this seems a small price to pay.

It's crazy to put this kind of responsibility on anyone who is not properly trained! It doesn't matter if it is a 16 year old high school student or a 40 year old mom, anyone doing this job should be trained. And if they don't have time to train them correctly, have a pharamicist check EVERY prescription filled - no exceptions! I use Walgreens as my pharmacy, mainly because it is the only convenient one where I live. I will be verifying that a pharmacist has checked my prescriptions from now on! Thank you for informing the public to this dangerous situation.

I actually have used Walgreens pharmacy for years, but now that I know they put profits before safety of their customers, I will no longer be using their pharmacies in the future. If I see that they are cleaning up their act and taking responsibility for this problem and hiring more professionals and not letting barely-trained children fill prescriptions, I may reconsider. Thank You ABC for keeping the public informed on these important issues!

Like this should come as a big surprise to anyone?? In this day & age the bottom line is all that matters. People don't count.
So what if a few people drop dead from mis filled prescriptions. Paying off a few lawsuits is just part of the cost of doing business and will still be cheaper the hiring qualified Pharmacists.

Well, surprise, surprise... greedy corporations cutting costs by using teenaged labor at the expense of customer safety. When will we as a nation finally say enough is enough to unchecked corporate greed???

I am speechless. A 16 year old can't even serve beer, wine, liquor in a restaurant, so why the HELL is a 16 year old dispensing meds. The stores that allow this should be boycotted.