As a pharmacist for several years with experience in both retail and hospital pharmacies, I can certainly identify with the commentary provided earlier by Kristen. To everyone who has experienced a medication misadventure due to pharmacy errors, I sincerely apologize. Most pharmacists work diligently to prevent errors, and are absolutely devastated if an error occurs during their service. To chalk it up to "human error" is just not a valid excuse--I agree that there is no plausible "excuse" when a loved one is caused needless harm. The point that is missing in this blog is the fact that most of these errors occur because the system is broken. To expect a pharmacist to work 12-14 hour shifts without lunch or bathroom breaks and fulfill a minimum quota of prescriptions while answering 7 phone lines and a drive-thru window with insufficient staffing AND be 100% error-free is unreasonable and certainly unsafe---this is why I left retail pharmacy. It is my sincere belief that the drug store chain, not the individual pharmacist forced to work in this environment, should be held accountable for criminal and civil repercussions when errors are made that harm patients---only then might the system repair itself.

Everyone always blames the pharmacy, when the doctors make most of the errors. Sure they make mistakes, but so does every business in America. Walgreens is a company with a rich tradition. They are one of the most ethical companies in the U.S. As Americans we only look at what companies or individuals do wrong, not how many times a pharmacist has SAVED A LIFE DUE TO DOCTOR ERROR. Next time you are in a pharmacy and you are sick and angry don't take it out on the technician or the pharmacist when they tell you it will take 15 minutes, be patient.

Before completely blaming the Pharmacists, some of these posters should sign affidavits that they have never, ever made an important mistake. Nope, not one.

Pharmacists are also human (most of them, anyway), and will make errors. There's no getting around it. "Fire the pharmacist!" cries will only guarantee that no one trains to be pharmacists any more, and the next thing you know, Billy the checkout bagger is filling your prescription (no offense, Billy). Or, prices go even higher as pharmacies pay higher and higher salaries, trying to attract Pharmacists back to the industry.

Some pharmacies have double-check protocols in place where a 2nd trained employee must verify the prescription was filled correctly. This should be federally mandated for all pharmacies. It must include as a minimum: 1) frequent mandated breaks in the work day, 2) a second, properly trained employee verifies that a) the prescription has been filled as ordered, and b) the prescription is appropriate for the patient. This must be done as an *entirely* independent step to be effective.

Finally, we as patients or parents have to check the results, also. The dangers are too great not to.

I have been a pharmacist for 27 years and this is a problem that has been caused by society in general. Everyone is in a hurry. If pharmacists were allowed to take their time filling every rx this wouldnt happen. the comment made about technicians filling prescriptions is wrong. technicians don't fill prescriptions, they input the rx and pull the meds for the rx and then the pharmacist checks everything to make sure it is correct before the patient gets the medication, so if a mistake is made, the pharmacist catches it and the rx is fixed to make it correct. if the pharmacist misses a mistake the technician who inputted the rx then their is a misfill. I catch many mistakes every day that the doctors who write the rx's make and verify anything that doesnt seem right or cant read with the doctor's office before filling the rx. I now work at a hospital outpatient pharmacy and can take the time needed to do everything accurately. if a customer complains to me about taking too long, i ask them one question: do you want the correct medication, dose, directions, and counselling ?
if they answer yes, i tell them to sit down and wait till i have it ready. if they say no then i hand them back the prescription and tell them to go elsewhere.

I'm a current pharmacy student. I just want to echo the recent graduate's comments. Retail pharmacy is a very high stress job situation. The number of medications that exist, from the very popular to the very obscure is almost limitless. Doctors don't always know how medications come, how to dose them, or their drug or disease state interactions. We do the best that we humanly can. In between answering 3 phone lines, taking care of the patients at prescription drop off and at pick up, dealing with the drive through, calling insurance companies, verifying hundreds of prescriptions a day, and counseling patients on prescriptions and many OTC questions, pharmacists still manage to catch thousands of errors daily. Studies have shown that pharmacists' involvement in medication management has actually saved hundreds of millions of dollars by preventing medication related errors. While sadly, the occasional error does occur, I would challenge anyone to name a profession that never had a flaw. I do not know any of my peers that would ever intentionally harm a patient. We got into this profession to help people, not to hurt them. To state that we are in any way criminals for a mistake is absurd!

Unfortunately, there is a huge shortage of pharmacists. One person is doing the job of 2 or 3 and you're not going to be perfect all the time in that environment. While that is of little consolation to the families of those who may have been hurt, there are reasons malpractice insurance exists for all medical professionals.

The only thing this story can do is stir up controversy. Pharmacy has been one of America's most trusted professions for decades. We earned that ranking for a reason, but I doubt I'll ever see a news story showing that side of the story.

Where I work the Pharmacists must work 7 days straight and 12 hours a day 9am-9pm. Who in their right mind can expect 100% mistake free perscriptions? Especially when filling almost 300 a day? Come people use your head!

I'm an aspiring pharmacy student that works at Walgreens on the side. Just so you know, there is an error-checking system in place along each part of the workflow thru the pharmacy.

I have to say I am appalled that Walgreens, nor the pharmacist, ever apologized to the family. I must work at a really good pharmacy because if we do make a mistake, we immediately apologize and try our best to satisfy the patient's needs as quickly as possible.

However, these comments about making pharmacists "criminally" liable are ridiculous! If you've never worked a day behind the counter, then you have no right to presume to know how to do the job correctly. It's very stressful and mistakes do happen. But I've seen pharmacists go out of their way to fix a mistake a MD made or even give free Albuterol solution for an asthma patient because they had no insurance or a doctor is unreachable to authorize a refill.

Why would anyone want a law that holds pharmacists CRIMINALLY liable for a mistake? That is absurd. It is one thing if the pharmacist is wreckless (drunk on the job, etc) - but an honest mistake shouldn't result in a pharmacist being deprived of their liberty. If you start throwing people in jail for mistakes, you will soon find that no pharmacist is willing to work. Then you won't have access to your medications. It will not be unlike the OB-GYN shortage in California. Is this really reasonable? Do we live in a society that punishes people for honest mistakes?

I will say again.... Everyone makes mistakes. Being a pharmacist for a large chain store is a very stressful job. To say a pharmacist or other healthcare professional is ignorant, IS ignorant... it's not about a pharmacist's education and knowledge about the actual drugs, but about the MANY other things going on requiring the pharmacist to multi-task during a normal work day. A pharmacist would love to share their vast knowledge about medications, disease states, interactions, and/or side effects, but they very rarely have the opportunity to voice any of this information due to handling insurance claims and unhappy customers, calling physicians, and checking filled prescriptions. And if they do use this knowledge and discover a mistake by a doctor, or counsel a patient on OTC meds, it is unrecognized.
Pharmacists deserve more credit for all that they do. It is never a good thing to make a mistake, but don't demean and disrespect a profession that is very important in the healthcare field. And yes, every pharmacist should know that it is their duty to apologize for any mistakes made, regardless of how the mistake came about. No one is perfect, in any profession, in any field, in any type of situation.

Would you rush your pharmacist if you know a mistake can kill you?

I think it's a good thing ABC is airing this story. It's unfortunate but many mistakes are not reported. That's a fact. Most pharmacies are understaffed and most patients don't understand the importance of our work. I hope the story explains why mistakes are made but I think the story also needs to be fair. It needs to explain that pharmacists catch many more mistakes than make a mistake.

I think most of us try our best to prevent mistakes but there're many ignorant people in this world. I have people who got angry at me because I want to verify their date of birth, just to make sure I am giving the right medication to the right person. Some physicians have the same attitude. Have you tried reading your physician's handwriting?

As a pharmacy technician student who will be taking pre-pharmacy in the fall, I feel I need to respond to some of these comments. Kristin was completely correct in saying that a pharmacy, even a small one, is extremely busy. I have been finding that out first hand as I have been doing my first rotation of clinical experience for my program. There are times when our pharmacist is on the phone, we have like 10 people waiting on prescriptions, and the counter is full of prescriptions waiting on the pharmacist to check them. I know first hand how easy it is to misread the prescriptions that come in. Doctors are in a hurry and scrawl out their orders and its up to the techs to figure them out. Its easy to misread the label and grab the wrong drug. But pharmacists are not all "Idiots". There are always a few bad apples, like this particular one who refuses to apologize for the damage he unwittingly did. But to toss out even more regulations and rules is just going to make pharmacists and pharmacy techs start to vanish like doctors are doing. Mistakes happen, pharmacists and pharmacy techs are human. Errors should be expected. Everyone should always check their own medication as soon as they come home from the pharmacy. If its something you take on a regular basis, you should know if something isnt right. It is ok to question your pharmacist and the techs too. They are trained to answer your questions. My sympathy goes out to the family of the little girl who was sickened.

I have to defend the pharmacists on this.They deal with thousands of customers a week.Anytime I am at a pharmacy, all I see are short tempered customers demanding immediate service.The workers are always on the phone trying to do the customers legwork of calling their insurance providers.I used to work in retail.I can understand that when dealing with millions of customers a year, mistakes can be made.My only question is,does anyone ever blame their Dr.'s for possibly writing wrong or illegible prescriptions?I am a Walgreen's customer myself,and it's almost overwhelming how many questions they ask to verify my prescriptions.From being an ex-retail employee, I would just like to give some positive credit where it is due.

Pharmacists must assume full responsibility of any mistakes made under their watch. And many unfortunate things have resulted from errors, but speaking as a certified technician for 5 years and a now a student earning a Pharm D, I believe patients should take a more active role in their healthcare.
Many of our customers refer to their meds as "the white one" or "my sugar pill." They pick up their RX, in a rush, while talking on the cell phone, and refuse any counseling. And the drive thru! My pharmacy doesn't have one, but those things seem to complicate every problem as well. How can a pharmacist adequately and confidentially counsel a patient through a scratchy speaker phone??? Please come inside, health care is not a fast-food service!
Patients need to be more responsible for their healthcare in general. Slow down. Know what you are taking and why. Know the color and shape of every pill, check the name on the bottle, and discuss the directions and side effects with the doctor as well as the pharmacist. Don't be afraid to ask any questions, and call us when you get home if there are any problems. If something seems wrong, like taking 5 tablespoons of an anti-biotic then it probably is.
Bottom line, pharmacists should be held responsible all scripts that they verify and dispense, but they are human and obviously not perfect. By having patients double check their meds, we may not be able to reduce pharmacy error, but we can definitely prevent some of the deadly consequences.

A month ago Walgreens made a terrible medication error and gave me a time release capsule form of a Schedule II medicine that I take in normal tablet form. I have worked in the medical field and always check my medication. When I saw what they had given me instead of the correct form of the drug I was stunned. I had had just assumed that it was a cheaper generic form and taken my normal number an taken in this time release form I believe that I would have been is very serious trouble. I called immediately to correct the situation and told my doctor. He advised me to change pharmacies. I probably should have reported it to the state board of Pharmacy because doubt Walgreens did.

Jim
NM

Just reporting the mistakes is NOT addressing the REAL problem. The pharmacist are working too many hours with too few breaks. Anyone under those circumstances are most likely going to make mistakes. So how will reporting it fix the mistakes? It won't! The mistakes are NOT happening because the pharmacist are not paying enough attention! They are happening because of no regulations on the working conditions of the pharmacist, and because business people do not want to pay for additional pharmacist to be on duty to help. Instead, they sacrifice the publics safety just to save them some money! That is where the REAL problem is! These BUSINESSES need to be required by law and regulations to have a sufficient amount of pharmacist working at any given time. If the BUSINESS violates that regulation, they should be criminally charged, PLUS fined such a HUGE amount, that it would deter ANY BUSINESS from trying to cut corners on cost and endangering the publics safety! I'm not a pharmacist, but I've seen the UNSAFE CONDITIONS they have to work under! I hope 20/20 points the finger to the REAL culprit: the BUSINESSES and their GREED to SAVE MONEY with a LACK of CONSIDERATION for SAFETY!

My heart goes out to the Gehrke family. What a shame that a normal healthy beautiful girl has to suffer for a mistake a careless pharmacist made. There should be no excuse for this. I think the pharmacist license should be revoked. I also think a trust fund should be set up for Alexandra so she is taken care of for the rest of her life. I will keep Alexandra in our prayers.

The investigation fails to point ou how many errors are CAUGHT by pharmacies every year. It is my experience that there are many more errors in physicians PRESCRIBING rather than pharmacists DISPENSING prescriptions.

Last year, I had a prescription of insulin filled at our local Wal-Mart Pharmacy in Southport, NC. As we had been filling the prescription there for an extended period, I did not look closely at the bottle before allowing my daughter to fill her insulin pump. She filled her pump with the insulin and it was the incorrect prescription all together, she ended up in the emergency room and it took almost a week to regain control of her blood sugars and insulin doses. Wal-Mart implied that I SHOULD HAVE noticed the problem before leaving the store. I reported the problem to the NC Pharmacy Board and Wal-Mart received nothing more than a warning. This is very discouraging and I am hopeful that this never happens again, specifically to someone older who does not have a live-in caregiver, as this type of mistake can result in death easily to someone with diabetes.

I've just recently had the same issue with Walgreens typing the wrong dosage on the label for my 4 year old son. It was double the strength he should have gotten. I also had the same issue with Eckerds when my son was an infant. Eckerds had typed 1.5 teaspoons instead of 1.5 milliters. Walgreens did apologize, but Eckerds was defensive to admit their mistake saying it was the Dr's handwriting that made it hard to decipher. My gosh they have a college degree and should know an infant can't take a teaspoon full of medicine in the first place. Plus why didn't they call the Dr to clarify what was written? I always have the Dr explain exactly what the prescription dosage and the medicine will look like ever since that first time with Eckerds issue. I see it the same as medical malpractice..so why are they able to get away with it if it affects a persons life but Dr's or nurses would have a malpractice law suit on them?

I am a nationally certified pharmacy techician who has worked in that position for over 20 years. I watched Brian Ross on Good Morning America this morning and became very angry at a statement that he made at the close of this segment, when he stated that people who sign the prescription log are waiving their rights to counselling. This is absolutely untrue!! I have never worked in a chain pharmacy, have always worked for independents. We have a very strict system of checks and rechecks for our prescriptions, and when we have our customers sign the Rx log, we constantly ask them if they wish to speak to the pharmacist about their prescriptions, or if they have any questions at all. Even if there is a slight adjustment in the dosage of their meds from the doctor, we always inform them with a note that we attach to their prescription receipt. We also have a column on our signature log that they check for couselling or non counselling. As a well respected and trusted neighborhood pharmacy, we take care and pride that we give our customers the right prescriptions and the right instructions. Our pharmacists are right on top of everything. I guess there will always be professions to attack, for news reporters' careers, and I suppose that this week the pharmacy technician is it. Just remember, there is a difference between a pharmacy clerk, a state registered pharmacy techician and a nationally certified one. In order to be certified nationally, one has to be schooled in the profession and pass a national exam, as well as keeping up with continuing education credits yearly.