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

I have seen customers yelling a pharmacy employees that they need to just put the pills in the bottle and how hard can it be. I think that there are many causes to these problems outlined in this report. Pharmacies are trying to keep up with the ever growing demand that their customers have to get their perscriptions right now. If everyone wants their perscription right now, that does not leave much time for anything else. You try telling someone to come back in an hour and see what response you get.

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

I thought your story was really informative. I think people don't think twice and just take the pills with the assumption that they have been filled correctly.
I was thinking of an idea that may help to assure that each patient can do a "self-check" after receiving and before taking their medication. What if the pharmacy included in the literature that is printed out with the prescriptions, a color photo depicting the exact color, size and logo that should match-up to the pills they have been given! I think this would be a great tool in helping to ensure the patient is aware of what the pill should look like prior to taking it!

Kathy

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

I have been in management for 2 major pharmacy chains and I can tell you that one chain I worked for before put us through 6 classes and then we had to take the test to be certified by the company but not the state. They have now since changed that in the past 2 years, you get in store training and when you are ready you now sit at a computer at the store in the office and take your test to be certified. At this chain they do their best to keep costs down so there are minimum employees in the pharmacy and up front. The company I work for now has 3 or more employees in the pharmacy and 4 or more up front so that the pharmacy employees are not doing thing they shouldn't have to do. This allows them to spend all their time doing what they should be doing. They put you through classes and then you go to take the certification test and we all have to be trained in store and in the class room. I have seen more mistakes by the doctors and our pharmasits catch them and call the doctor to fix them before we can fill these perscriptions. Then you have the customer who wants it now! Noone can wait, they have to have it now and they yell at you if they have to come back. All in all, I have never seen any mistakes made at either drug store chain I have worked for and the pharmasists whom I have worked with really pay attention to what they are doing and they care about the people they are filling perscriptions for. We also have new computer programs in place that alert us of mis fills, drug interactions and every perscription that goes out MUST be checked by the pharmasist or it can not be sold at the register. As for signing away your rights, we ask everyone if they have any questions for the pharasist about the medication or it's effects, and 90% of the customers that we have at the pharmacy say no or they just don't want to take the time to wait a few minutes to speak to the pharmasist.

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

Very important story... very important topic, especially considering that medication errors kill more people in the US than car accidents. However, I would like to propose to investigate the root cause of all this. Let's focus for a minute on the EMPLOYER themselves, the working conditions of the personnel behind the counter.

I worked for Giant Eagle for a while. Did you know that:
1. Pharmacists do NOT get time off to (a) eat (have lunch), (b) go to the bathroom (basic needs!), or sit? Pharmacists may go for full 8 or 12 hours (depending on the schedule) on their feet for ALL those many hours. Could we investigate the degree of concentration of that pharmacist after 6 hours of non-stop work?

2. In addition to checking what technicians have filled, the pharmacist has to (a) call prescribers for mutiple clarifications AND refill authorizations. Who do we get? Only SECRETARIES!; with luck, a nurse, who sometimes decides on his/her own to "go ahead" and authorize one (or several) refills, or who says, "the patient says s/he is taking this or that...". Right there there is a tremendous opportunity for error... but most physicians are NOT available EVER to talk to a pharmacist!; (b) make an infinite number of calls to TRANSFER prescriptions... from one pharmacy to the next, depending on WHO is offfering coupons or other rewards. I do not know HOW a pharmacist can provide counseling to these costumary "transfering patients".

3. Most pharmacist (and technicians) work in a extremely noisy environment, which can and IS quite distracting. NOt only the phones ring constantly, the pharmacist has to make calls mostly non-stop, but a RADIO is blasting with non-stop nonsense "talk", laud music, and plain stupidity.

All of the above is in addition to being subjected to a "store manager" who, if a costumer complains, interferes and try to manipulate pharmacy business (although Pharmacy BOards prohibit the presence of non-pharmacy personnel in the pharmacy area).

In summary, none of the above is to justify the errors made and lack of counseling given... it is just to point out that the problem is MUCH bigger. Big chains have a responsibility on this. For them, it is just "business". Pharmacists are subjected to inhumane treatment and working conditions by the "Rite Aids", the "Giant Eagles", the "CVSs", the "Walgreens", etc, etc., with serious consequences to the pharmacists' health.

Kathy..."fast checking"...what is that...??? I'm a tech and we need a cashier in the pharmacy...is this a "fast checker"??

I think Kathy's idea is great.Patients should double check their own prescription before using it.May be people should stop comparing Chain drug stores to fast food restaurants. Drive-thrus are for convenience, but hey you have to realize that we are not dispensing fries or drinks. It's a PHARMACY...learn to be patient when it comes to drugs that can either heal you or kill you!

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

Mr "John", Technicians are VERY WELL trained to count pills!! A pharmacist needs to check! and YES... a pharmacists is ALWAYS on duty when the pharmacy is open.

I noticed that you seemed to target Walgreens Rx in your story. I think that this is a bigger problem than you realize. Being an employee of The Kroger Co. based in Cincinatti, Ohio I am forced to use Kroger Rxs because they are self insured.

Having delt with Kroger Rxs after 12 years my wife and I have seen many stupid mistakes made by thier employees, too numerous to list.

I used to remodel and build pharmacies for Kroger and the HIPPA privacy law may well not exist. Rx employees discuss customers' medications and behaviors like a soap opera

Joe

The article misleads through omission: the article describes Flynn as being "disappointed" that the error rate in the current study was the same as the one conducted 10 years ago and thereby gives the probably false impression that process improvements and technology have done nothing to improve the accuracy of pharmacies. However, the article neglects to mention whether all other factors were the same or similar. For example, what about fill rates and pharmacist to rx ratios at the pharmacies that were visted. If the pharmacies visited 10 years ago filled 100 rx in a day and the ones in this study filled 300 rx in a day, then you can make the assertion that processes and technology HAVE improved the accuracy of the pharmacy. Apples & oranges here with the article omitting that little item.

The article is just plain wrong:
1) Pharmacists are only LEGALLY required to counsel Medicaid patients with new prescriptions only (OBRA 1990). Any other counseling is a courtesy (either personal or encouraged by the company).
2) Signing the form is NOT a waiver of your right to counselling. It is merely an assertion by the patient that they want to take their medication out of their pharmacy without needing counseling. If you want it, you'll get it every time.
3) Verbal indication of the aspirin/coumadin interaction would be nice to get from every pharmicist. However, AGAIN, there is no legal requirement to counsel anyone but medicaid patients. The labels and warning on the medication DO list those interactions and it is the PATIENT's responsibity to read them. If there is a lack of understanding on the patient's part, then for god's sake ask for the counseling whether it's at the pharmacy or by phone from home.

Junk science. It's like saying that since the death rate from car accidents is the same as it was 20 years ago, all safety improvements due to technolgy must be ineffective. Of course, that would ignore the greater number of drivers on the road, increased congestion, DUI rates, etc.

Ignore the article & do yourself a favor by simply taking an interest in what medication you're taking.

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

I just want to let you know that CVS is a mess too regarding filling medication, my daughter was at the pharmacy, lst month, filling up an antiobotic, they first could find the med, finaly they gave her my MED ; ACTONEL !!!
a bunch of kids were lost between the med, they gave their med to other client !....I dont understand I gave you my e-mail ok?

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

I dont care if you have a or a GED PhD, I think it is a miracle that any one can read my doctor's hand writing. Why dont we hold the doctors responsible to printing the prestriptions or sending them electronically to the pharmacy so they can use computers and robots to fill them error proof. imho, conting 30 pills and pouring them into a vial is not rocket science. I dont care who does that. Oh BTW, I can READ the instructions on the label too. SO I dont need the pharmacist to waste my time by reading them to me.I want my pharmacist to watch for allergies/ drug interactions and answer mu questions.

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

I am a 3rd year pharmacy student and although I did not get to view all of tonight's broadcast, I can say with confidence that I would do everything in my power to ensure that the right medication is dispensed to my patients. I can only hope that your story will inspire patients to me more involved with their healthcare. I do feel that ABC misrepresented pharmacists and the value that they have in saving lives. Please consider for a moment all of those individuals that were saved by a pharmacist's intervention. There is no excuse for mistakes, and my sincere apologies go out to anyone affected by a medication error. I urge patients to talk with their pharmacist and asked questions about their medications. Please understand that pharmacies are not fast food restaurants and that it takes time to review a patient’s medications