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.

I feel for the patients family, very tragic. But the farmacy holds maybe 20% of the fault at most. Why didn't the patient double check doctors orders with what was in the perscription bottle? That would have prevented the whole situation. We have to stop pointing the finger at other people and start taking responsibility for our own actions (or lack thereof).

Isn't it interesting that this same girl would not be allowed by law to scan your beer or achohol through the register scanner and place it in the bag for you without the assistance of an adult (18 yrs)running the product accross the scanning belt for her at the grocery store but she can fill your prescription at the pharmacy with out limitations?

I fully agree with the statement made above by Anthony. The majority of the public do not fully understand everything that goes into medication therapy and expect getting a prescription to be no different than ordering a cheeseburger. As a current pharmacy student, we are made fully aware that unfortunately, errors do happen in every field of healthcare, including pharmacy. Everyone, no matter age or education, is capable of making a mistake, that is why we always prefer to double check with another source.

Also, in your preview of this evening special, you said that you were waving your ability to ask questions, that is simply untrue. Everyone at my pharmacy ALWAYS ask if you have any questions, but that DOES NOT mean that you cannot call later if you have a question. By law, pharmacy phone numbers are given to patients for a reason, we are there for them and more than willing to answer any questions they have.

Also, technically, not all patients in every state are actually required to be offered that consultation service, just Medicare patients. Pharmacies have extended that offer to counsel to all patients because they care about their patients, not to sidestep the law as you implied this morning. I understand that journalism is about making people pay attention to what you say, but in the future, it would be appreciated if you would at least be fair in your reporting. Pharmacy and pharmacists are the most underappreciated part of the healthcare system, an idea propagated by editorials like this one.

There is a right way and a wrong way to do everything. It is the patients responsibility to know their copays and coverages. Insurance companies notify plan members, either through group plans provided by the employer or the group administrator and individually through plan publications and mailings of coverages and changes. I've had group plan coverage for over 20 years and I have always received policy coverage and change information promptly. Don't blame the insurance companies for dumb and impatient customers.

If your wait times vary, or tend to be long, put a sign out that informs the customers when they approach the counter what their expected wait time will be. If they don't like it, they can go elsewhere. Each and every customer deserves accurate and exacting service. If that takes time, then it takes time.

The fact is that the patients deserve zero errors on their prescriptions. Zero, not 1 in 1,000,000. If you don't have enough properly trained and qualified staff, then don't fill the prescription. It is as simple as that. If you take money for providing a service and that service kills or sickens someone because you made a mistake, the only one to blame is yourself.

I really don't think 16 yr. olds have any business helping dispense prescriptions.
I also have to say that I've used Kmart pharmacy in my town for over 15 years. Their pharmacists are overworked, but are always willing to take time to answer questions. They do have assistants helping them, but I've never seen one as young as 16!!
And yes, I've had to sign that I understand the doctor's directions & have gotten any questions (if any) answered.

Some of the above posts seem to require clarification. For one, mistakes in pharmacy can (and do) happen in EVERY pharmacy in the world. The only way to truly eliminate these errors would be to remove the drugs. Also, there are many pharmacy techs who are very well trained (some with college degrees). In response to one post, the VAST majority of pharmacists worked as pharmacy techs prior to pharmacy school. Also, pharmacy licences are not granted without many hours of work in pharmacy practice. Unless individuals begin to take a more proactive role in their own health care, it would be impossible to see dramatic change. If you want to criticize pharmacists, nurses, doctors, etc. you sould at least know what medicine you are talking about (as opposed to saying "for a foot fungus").

Just yesterday i was given the wrong dose of a anti-depressent medication at a CVS. I gave my presciptions to a teenage-appearing worker at the drive in window. The bottle was a sealed month's supply from the manufacturer. The pharmacy label and warnings completly covered up the label, so this mistake was not realized by me until i opened the bottle and the wrong pill fell into my hand. How can a pharmasist double check when all the external information is covered? He just has to trust the child who gave it to him. On top of that, another needed prescription that I had refilled was not even included! My husband picked up the medication for me, so he did not know which one was missing. This is one area where adults should be in charge, not children, so these mistakes are less likely to happen. Really, 18 or 21 should be the minimum for working with medications that could kill someone or harm them gravely if dispensed incorrectly.

As a certified pharmacy technician, I found this very disturbing. I've worked in 2 different pharmacies, one small and family owned, the other a larger chain and the pharmacist is always the last one to check the prescription. I think anyone who works as a pharmacy tech should have the proper training and certification. I received my certification only after I passed a test for each part of my training. I enjoy being a pharmacy tech and articles like this give the the good ones a bad name.

In response to a previous comment about pharmacists getting experience prior to graduation, I would like to point out that is currently the case. For anyone who graduates from a School of Pharmacy, they must complete a PharmD program, which includes at least of year of practical experience, similar to an internship. For all states, a person must have a certain number of hours in practical experience prior to even being considered for getting a pharmacist's license.

The FDA should be involved in how prescriptions are filled in the U.S. and by all means a high school student should not be given the responsibilty of such an important job..

To RENA, I am a Certified Pharmacy Technician with 13 years of experience and the test your son studied for is NOT a joke and is very difficult. Apparently you are unaware that COSTCO is a retail pharmacy. I also work in a retail pharmacy and the biggest problem that ABC has not addressed is that there is a SHORTAGE of pharmacists in this country and they RELY on Pharmacy Technicians for help in filling a prescription. If you want to balk at 10 minutes, then it will take all day for a Pharmacist to fill the 600 Rx's we fill a day, if he had to key them in and fill them alone. Not to mention ERRORS, they would be all over the place, due to FATIGUE! Just because this one girl made a mistake doesn't mean that the rest of us are idiots and should not be filling prescriptions. And if you want experienced technicians, they have to start somewhere, and if you keep increasing their pay to a level that they can live off of, you might see that you get a better employee that is more accurate. Another thing, a Pharmacist is not GOD and GOD is the only one who is not allowed to make mistakes.

The biggest thing missing from this story is this: There is a huge shortage of pharmacists in the country. In a time where people are living longer, and a pharmacy is opening up on every corner, there is simply not enough staff to cover all of these stores. I used to work at a major pharmacy chain in Minneapolis. The staff shortage got so bad, that we had to fly pharmacists in from other parts of the country (all at overtime, and huge cost) to help staff the stores, and in some cases, close some pharmacies early, or open late, due to a lack of pharmacist. With the pool or experienced registered pharmacists spread so thin, these stores have no choice but to have pharmacy techs do more and more work. And errors unfortunately will happen.

lets look at the real reason high school kids work in retail pharmacy.the insurance companies have squeezed any profits left out of drug stores to line there pockets leaving pharmacies who need help running there businesses with the cheapest labor the law allows. no wonder america wake up-jl rph

I had a recent experience liek this. Except, the pharmacy technician at Rite-Aid clicked all my buttons in those electronic boxes. So, I never even had a chance to ask the pharmacist questions about my drugs! I will never be returning to Rite-Aid. Target has been very good about the pharmacist checking me out and telling me what I need to know!

For someone who has no idea what goes on in the pharmacy department, it's very easy for them to look and point fingers at what goes wrong. People make mistakes. Everyone does-we're all human. It's absolutely no excuse for fatal accidents or even small mistakes, but there is alot of pressure from the general public when they walk into a pharmacy and get upset because the wait time is not as short as they'd like it to be and every 5 minutes there is that customer that keeps asking, "is mine ready yet?". Or the customer whose co-pay has increased, unbeknownced to them becasue they ignore what paperwork is sent to them from their insurance company. Something isn't covered, something requires a prior authorization, something isn't clear on the rx, no reills, rx expired...the list goes on and on and the patient always askes the pharmacy, "will you call for me". They rarely take any responsibility to look at their own bottle and see that they need to contact the Dr. for their next fill. This all adds extra pressure to those behind the pharmacy counter. So before you point your fingers at us for the mistake that are made because of the pressure to do things quickly, how about helping us out a bit and call your Dr. yourself for once.

The picture of the young girl, who entered the prescription information incorrectly, is misrepresenting the truth behind the story. By displaying her picture, the individual coordinating the information is placing the blame on the young girl. She is a technician, who operated under the license of a pharmacist. The pharmacist is responsible for the error. The real story behind this horrible accident is that the pharmacist failed to check to be certain the technician did in fact enter the information correctly. In addition, the pharmacist should have visited with the customer to discuss the medication. Ten times the dosage of Coumadin is excessive and should have been caught.

Do not jump to conclusions again. We need to know why the pharmacist did not catch the error. Not enough other licensed pharmacists to cover the prescription load? Inadequate technology? There are several reasons, and within these reasons is an answer that hides as details but holds all the strength of truth.

ABC,

Can humans ever be perfect? Even your computer or a bar coded system is still prone to error. With 500 million events such as filling prescriptions some errors would be expected. That would still be true of even trained personnel.
Although no level of error is "acceptable," it is essential that continuing review of established protocols be done with the aim at reducing such error in the future. A report on those efforts would add meaning to any expose of the system.
Professionally,
Fred Teichman, M.D.

As a former Walgreens employee I myself was called many times to the pharmacy to assist at the counter for pickups. I never counted pills or saw customer info.

The media makes money of ratings. They need to sensationalize their stories. Health care, including pharmacy, is like any other business in Americia. It is here to make a profit. If the public has a 401K or stocks, I bet some of them are in health care including pharmacy. If the public wants safety, require pharmacies and hospitals and insurance companies to post what they do to ensure saftey and be ready to pay for it. Blame and hype does nothing to resolve the issue.

Did you know when u have a perscription filled the company isn't responsible for in incorrect filling. My daughter was given the wrong meds and suffered a Grand Mal seizure. Not only was she hospitalized she also suffered long term affects. Who is responsible...Rite Aid said they aren't....the pharmacists aren't...so who is? My daughter is now 24 years old an has a handicap that is long term.

people are trying to make excuses for employees for why they make mistakes...ok people there should not be mistakes with medications, you are putting peoples lives in your hands by filling there meds. There should be no mistakes, how would you feel if you mistakenly filled the wrong perscription or wrong dosage and something happens to that person, dies, or is giving them brain damage for the rest of their lives. There should only be perfesionals filling medications and they need to know what their doing and full attention on what their doing. thats it..bottom line.

No one has considered the possiblity of illegible handwriting. Coumadin 1mg scribled fast can easily look like Coumadin 10mg. Both are resonable doses.

I was the owner of an independent pharmacy for 30 years until I was made an offer by a major drug chain which asured my retirement future. I accepted their offer and went to work for them for a short time for insurance benefits until I reached retirement age. While operating my own store I was more closely involved in the actual filling of prescriptions and only filled about half as many as I did while working for the chain. This gave me much more time to spend with each patient and to be more accurate in my work. At the chain store I had to over see 5 techs where before I had one. Even though I checked every prescription which went out,smoetimes because of time constraints I really felt like some things were getting by me without being checked closely enough. This problem could be corrected by removing the time constraints on filling prescriptions and by using more pharmacist and less techs. There used to be regulations of one tech per pharmacist but now that chain pharmacist make up most of the pharmacy board positions they have relaxed that requirment.

It does not take a college degree to count out pills and stick a label on a bottle. Mistakes are made by everyone. You cannot train a person to not make mistakes. And as far as getting the wrong perscription, shouldn't the consumer know what perscription they are getting? If they are not observant enough to look at the label and make sure everything is right, then they shouldn't be trusted to administer medication to themselves. Has anyone ever thought that the mistake could have been made by the doctor perscribing the wrong drug?

I can only hope that the 20/20 presentation tonight is not so one sided when it airs. This story did nothing but sensationalize the problem without offering any solutions, the view of the responsible pharmacist, or a response from the American Pharmacists Association, etc. I am truly disappointed in such unbalanced and irresponsible journalism. The conditions of American pharmacies, how they work, what role the consumer plays, and the role a corporation plays could have all been discussed. But NO ABC chose scare tactics versus actually educating the public. Tsk, tsk, tsk.

Where was the pharmacist when the technician made the typing mistake? In
Walgreen’s computer system the pharmacist checks the prescription for typing errors and then prints the prescription label. Then the technicians fill the prescription, and the pharmacist is supposed to check for typing and mis-filling errors AGAIN. I do not see why a technician is being held responsible. It is the pharmacist fault for not paying attention!!! I can almost guarantee the pharmacist only had a bachelor in that pharmacy and not the new doctorate of pharmacy degree. I think it should be mandatory for every pharmacist to go back to school to get their doctorate. I believe it would cut down the errors. The University of Florida has four campuses in Florida offering classes for pharmacist to update their degree.

Though I am making no excuses for errors, we check three times on all bottles and directions. Also everything should be CASH and no insurance. The Pharmacists and technicians who workin busy stores ought to have a limit. e.g. 70 Rx's per day. If the store fills more thanthat, they have to hire more people. But Oh no the chains are thinking of only one thing MONEY, MONEY AND MORE MONEY!!!!!!

Interesting how people will post about the big pharmacy chains operating only for money, but don't mention that the media is making money by their ratings. Is causing a panic really doing anyone any good? The story is way out of context and unfortunately more people will potentially be harmed by it should they stop taking their medications. I agree there should be zero errors...absolutely. The fact is, there are errors in every profession including the healthcare industry. For years pharmacy technicians have operated under pharmacists, this is nothing new. I've been a pharmacy technician for years, been yelled at by customer's that they've waited "seven minutes already", cussed out for an insurance issue that had nothing to do with the pharmacy itself. You want to make a diffeence in your healthcare?? Start contacting the insurance companies about the rising costs of medications...that is the bottom line. Are the lawyers for these individuals doing this pro bono?

The rule of thumb is never do business with a large corporate chain of any kind especially a pharmacy. To them the customer is a faceless dollar sign who's health and well being means nothing. They could care less if you drop dead because they know that there will always be another faceless dollar sign right behind you to take your place.

Always do business with smaller independent companies. They will get to know you by name and will be more careful to properly service you. Yes, sometimes they will be a little more expensive but we are only talking pennies more. The peace of mind that you will receive and the fact that you are supporting a family owned business is well worth the extra expense.

FDA should be taking care of business on this one.I have been telling people about this for years. I have had the wrong prescription given to me.You should also count your pills. They have been wrong in the amount of these too. I know it is hard to count before you walk away from the counter but it needs to be done. I think that they are hoping you don't count them. This helps save drug stores money. They get 1 pill from every customer... in a day this would add up. Rite Aid and other big chains would rather pay min wage. I also blame this on the FDA. They should make sure that you need a college education in order to fill a prescription. This could be a matter of life or death!

Many years back I had my daughters checked for eye problems and when filling the prescriptions Eckerd Drugs swithched the medication. Since we live in Colombia we couldn´t do anything about it and never reported it to the authorities. Thank God there were no consequences.

FDA should be taking care of business on this one.I have been telling people about this for years. I have had the wrong prescription given to me.You should also count your pills. They have been wrong in the amount of these too. I know it is hard to count before you walk away from the counter but it needs to be done. I think that they are hoping you don't count them. This helps save drug stores money. They get 1 pill from every customer... in a day this would add up. Rite Aid and other big chains would rather pay min wage. I also blame this on the FDA. They should make sure that you need a college education in order to fill a prescription. This could be a matter of life or death!

When the Board of Pharmacy in New Mexico tried to place requirements on Walgreens as to how many prescriptions one pharmacist was allowed to fill per day safely, the Govenor of the State fired the entire Board. The replacements were chain store representatives, three of which were from Walgreens.

I am a licensed & certified pharmacy technician in California, and have worked in many areas of the pharmacy world. What I have seen in the retail pharmacy setting is there is a lack of "patient-care" on the corporate side.
Pharmacists and technicians are working horrible, long hours, all with minimal help. There are budget cuts in the pharmacy left and right, all to the expense of the patients. (I say "patients" because these people are seeking medical service from the pharmacy. Corporate sees them as "paying customers", just another dollar in the company's pockets.)
In poor work conditions, there is no way one can be error-free. Us technicians and pharmacists strive for the best service for our patients. And when we aren't given the help needed to do these things, the patients end up paying the price.
Also, to the patient's benefit, several pharmacies include medication information on the handouts along with their prescription bottle. These also include a picture of the drug along with imprint information.
I am curious about the story tonight, and will be watching. But from the sound of this article, it seems a bit one-sided. Please know that this does NOT happen all the time, and that the majority of pharmacy technicians are WELL TRAINED PROFESSIONALS. We take pride in our line of work. Hopefully the story tonight will shed light on that.

To hire a 16 yr old for the kind of responsibility Walgreens gave her is not acceptable. It appears to me that this is about "Profits", not the safety of the public. I understand the pharmacist is busy; if he/she is that busy, maybe it's time to hire another one or someone who has more training than what this teenager was given.

Actually, pharmacy students are required to work as technicians. In the state I am currently enrolled in you must work 500 hours on your own and then complete 1000 hours during your final year. I would also like folks to bear in mind that pharmacy technicians ARE NOT pharmacists and did not go through the minimum 6 years of a PharmD program to become a pharmacist. Yes, technicians are not required to have much training, but bring that up. Also, kudos to Anthony for stating the truth about how it is to work in a retail pharmacy as a pharmacist. You should all read his comment and stop and think the next time you want to yell or argue with the pharmacy about things they do not control (i.e. YOUR insurance, YOUR doctor, etc.).

As a former state investigator for the pharmacy commission, a few comments: 1. COUNT your pills. unethical pharms have been caught under-filling scrips and pocketing or re-selling the difference. Rite-Aid was investigated and fined and in several states - check the website for your state licensing agency for disciplinary action. 2. Pharm employees are required to offer customer counseling regarding the meds. Often i'm simply directed to sign "counsel declined". 3. If you suspect problems with the meds, you can ask the pharm to re-count the pills in your presence.
4. If you have problems with accuracy and errors in a scrip being filled, contact your state oversight agency. There may be a pattern at that location or with a particular licensee.
5. Mistakes do happen. Consumers must be accountable to understand their meds and the correct dosage prescribed for them.

This investigation discusses patients signing away their right to counseling. National pharmacy associations and state boards of pharmacy are making efforts to have more counseling done by pharmacists. This is a huge shift in practice since 50 years ago it was illegal for pharmacists to discuss a patient’s medication with them. Laws are in place in many states that require pharmacists to counsel or offer counseling to patients.

The reason why pharmacists do not actually counsel on all prescriptions is because there is no reimbursement for a pharmacist's counseling services. Along with this, cuts in prescription reimbursement by both government and private insurance companies necessitate that pharmacists increase the volume of prescriptions sold to stay in business. The expectations of pharmacists by employers, government officials, and patients are unrealistic. If patients want to get their prescriptions for the cheapest price, then they are going to have to sacrifice quantity for quality.

If patients want effective counseling services from pharmacists, then they will have to be willing to spend some money for them. Students graduating from colleges with degrees in pharmacy must have a Doctorate of Pharmacology to become licensed. (In the past pharmacists only needed a Bachelor’s degree). Medical doctors have much less training in pharmacology than pharmacists. Pharmacists are the medication experts. Patients would not expect to receive advice from a doctor with paying for it, and this same attitude should be applied to pharmacists.

-Holly, Student Pharmacist

The real issue here is the States need to pass laws mandating prescription volume vs appropriate staffing. One pharmacist should not be allowed to fill more than 150-175 prescriptions per day. In these busy stores doing over 300 prescriptions and only one pharmacist on duty, that is a prescription for disaster. These chains will lie to you because there is no one overseeing the staffing. I worked retail pharmacy for years and got tired of filling over 250 prescriptions per day by myself. If the states would regulate the staffing, we wouldn't be watching these 20/20 specials on techs filling prescriptions and overworked pharmacists missing errors.

ABC,

One solution that the State of Maryland has created is a law that requires that a Pharmacy Technician have national certification before they are allowed to work in a pharmacy that is licensed to dispense medication in the State and/or for Maryland residents. How strictly will the law be enforced? We shall see!

That explains all the mistakes that have been made on my account at Walgreen's here in my town.

I got tired of all the mistakes and recently moved all of my prescriptions to a "real" local pharmacy where we found that Walgreen's had merged my account with at least 4 other people. It would have been understandable if the names had been similar to my own but they were not. It was just pure and simple somebodying doing a horrendously sloppy job with no accountability. I will never use any of the big companies again.

Local is much better and they care about what they are doing.

It all comes down to these money hungry corporations staffing with the absolute minimum amount of employees to save a few bucks. This problem needs to be adressed with updated labor laws requiring breaks for adults. In my state (michigan) only minors are guaranteed a lunch break. How exactly is someone supposed to perform their job with 8 or more hours on their feet WITHOUT FOOD?? Between that and the extreme impatience of society to have to wait for anything and you have a disaster waiting to happen.

We all know that nothing in life is guaranteed and we all know what happens when you a.s.s.u.m.e! Take a little responsibility for yourself and your families and check your script before you leave. Don't assume its correct and go on with your life.

Why doesn't ABC do a story about all the scripts that the pharmacies have gotten right!

its sad that the big pharmacy chains rely on inexperienced techs to run the pharmacy...Is it because they have to dish out less pay versus highering an experienced person and poying them more money?

First of all where the patients sign it doesnt say they are giving up their rights to talk to a pharmacist. you need to investiage more and read the paper your signing. it is for insurance purpose if the pharmacy ever get audit from insurance purpose. pharmasict are to always double check tech work.

Mistakes happen. This girl shouldn't be blamed for a typo. The pharmacist should have caught the error but just because the error happened in that store doesn't mean that pharmacist was at fault. Walgreens has a satellite system that allows other pharmacists to check prescriptions to help out busier stores. All prescriptions are checked by a pharmacist but can anyone honestly say, they've never had a typo. Can anyone in the news business say they've never had an editing mistake go to print. It happens, we aren't God. You try to minimize errors and the likely hood of errors happening. You think pharmacists need to count out each pill?? where will you get these people. Pharmacy is a long and difficult study. It's like doing away with nurses and making doctors collect vital signs. There is a pharmacist shortage and with the baby boomer's getting older there will only be a greater need for more pharmacists in this country.

I would just like to comment to the person who said that a walgreens is like a taco bell. First of all and most importantly if taco bell gives you the wrong order you are not going to die from it. When people are given the wrong perscriptions you can die as you have read. I think walgreens as a whole should be in trouble with this matter. Yes the 16 year old should but so should the rest of the employees that work in the pharmacy. If a loved one of mine became a victim and died or suffered serious problems due to their irresponsibilities you better beleive I would be fighting them in court and so would everyone else. So think before you say you wouldn't blame them for messing up your perscription!

I was a pharmacy technician for almost 4 years in west virgina and cared deeply about my patients. I always gave them advice on taking their med's. One woman even rewarded my stellar pharmacy tech skills by making me a hairline salad and bringing it to me for lunch. Oh how I miss the days of pharmcy life.

I know Janelle and she was not 16, she was 19. She had graduated from high school (2nd in her class) and she had taken a pharmacy tech course and had become certified. She feels horrible. There is no excuse for any mistakes, but it is the Pharmacist's responsibility to double-check every script. That is why the pharmacist makes $100,000 per year. The pharmacist missed the error, but that isn't as good of a story now is it? Instead they choose to exploit a young girl.

I have been a licensed pharmacy technician for 20 years. In order to receive my license, I had complete a year of study at a local college, followed by hands on training during my internship at a local hospital. In order to be come a licensed Pharmacist, one needs to complete a doctorate level degree followed by 1-3 years of internships. To state that a lack of training of pharmacy workers is solely responsible for mistakes is short sighted. Training is not the issue, a shortage of pharmacists, decreasing levels of reimbursement from insurance companies, an aging population, and increased cost of medications have lowered the profit margin for pharmacies. As a result, you are having an increasing workload placed on fewer people; people who often work overtime and with no breaks in order to make sure that the work gets done. It is crucial for the public to be active participents in their own healthcare. You need to know the name, dose and frequency of the medication that you are taking and what your are taking it for. You should also ask as many questions as you need to in order to make sure that you fully understand what you need to know regarding your medications. I would also like to point out that, by law, all work of technicians must be checked by a pharmacist and all patients must be offered counceling on the use of their medications by a pharmacist.

MORE TRAINING IS NEEDED! Watch a movie and you're good to go??? WTF???!!! I agree with the comment on Walgreen's apology note...who cares how little mistakes your company has made? A person died because of this and that's a HUGE mistake! In ALL businesses ( not only pharmacies ), company's pay the job and not the person. That happens everywhere...I fault Walgreens for hiring the inadequate 16-year old and the registered pharmacist who did not catch the error. This case is much more than an "everyone makes mistakes" error. Yes, people make mistakes, but in a workplace like a Pharmacy, where you should practice precaution...you can't afford to make a mistake like that. Especially in a job where you fill perscriptions...that should ADD to the pressue to MAKE SURE you do your job correctly. If that was me...I'd rather take the precaution with doing it correctly, get yelled at for being slow, and get yelled at for a prescription taking too long, instead of rushing and typing a prescription incorrectly..causing someone to DIE from MY ERROR !!??!!! It doesn't matter where you work...pharmacies, restaurants, construction company's, ANY where....there's no excuse for being THAT irresponsible.