Unfortunately, this is the case all too often when money takes priority over safety and common sense. I don't know how these executives can sleep at night. They have no conscience or compassion toward anyone. It's all about money and human values have gone to hell in a hand basket. I feel sorry for our world and dread what the future holds if people don't stop putting money before humanity.

Hopefully, this will result in a massive award that hits the company where it lives, in the bank account AND the loss of many many customers. There is no excuse for this.

When such a case occurs criminal charges should be actionable against the pharmacist on duty at the time the prescription was filled.

In the long run, Walgreens lost money, but most of all a beautiful human being suffered because of this. Haste does indeed make waste as they say.

When are we going to go back to making sure that all T's are crossed and all i's are dotted....quality not quantity. Two people should verify these prescriptions and the pharmacist should be professional enough to catch unrealistic orders written by physicians and unrealistic orders filled by themselves as the pharmacist. We are all human and must work together for the safety of the consumer.

Having been privy to ISO expectations and also associated with a large company’s Quality group, it comes down to a simple fact for Quality initiatives (as my old boss put it), “say what you do,.. then do what you say”. If you truly have a robust quality system in place, human error is not part of the equation, as you will have addressed that issue within your training records and procedural documentation to avoid it. Someone did not follow procedures. I agree with Terry’s statement, "If Walgreens wanted to improve their quality control and keep errors from happening, they would tell their pharmacists so they could be more careful", as this certainly a measurable part for the quality system where more errors equal worse performance and less equals better.

say what you do….then do what you say.

Why on earth would Walgreens not tell their pharmacist, or technicians about the errors? What possible reason could there be? How can these people improve or change anything to make it better if they aren't told? How does that benefit Walgreens? Are there legally set standards as to who may fill prescriptions? If not, why not? If there are, why haven't criminal charges been filed. This story needs some follow up. Thank you for making us aware of it.

Republicans have limited the right to sue and limited the damage awards to protect business from responsibility in these cases. They see this as a frivolous law suite harassing a legitimate business plan - kill the customers.

Kids with no Pharmaceutical training, have no business filling prescriptions. that is supposed to be done by pharmacists.....and since those pharmacists are earning $80K, right out of college, then they darn sure should be earning their pay!!!

This is a sad story but errors happen.

The story says that Walgreens fills 500 million scrips a year. Of these, how many are in error?

How many people posting here can say that never in their lives have they made a mistake with the potential to injure or kill another (e.g. pull out in front of another driver; make a lane change without checking carefully; under-cooking some hamburger; mix two cleaning liquids without checking the labels; turning your back on a toddler).

Patients (or their care-givers) need to assume some responsibility.

First, understand the doctors prescription (is that .5mg or 5mg?; once per day or twice a day?).

Second, Walgreens provides a print-out with each scrip listing the dosage and a complete description of that tablet (color and markings). Read the label and look at the pill - only takes a second.

I agree with those who question why a pharmacist isn't told of errors. Pharmacists are professionals (most states require a Pharm D to license). Being alerted to an error provides opportunity to learn.

And I agree that people filling the pill bottles need to have some basic training (and the pharmacists needs to look at every scrip before it's placed in the ready bin). But if everyone beind the counter has to have a Pharm D, get ready for big price increases and long waits on scrips.

Like every other area of human activity, pharmacists and technicians make mistakes, some negligent. Sadly, the prevailing attitude is "Sue'em, and make'em pay". Realize that this will be reflected in next year's insurance premiums that a pharmacy pays which will, in turn, come out of your pocket when you fill a prescription. The only person that will come out ahead will be the ambulance chaser. In terms of Mary's questions; yes, each state regulates who can fill a prescription and how.

The reporter, Dana Hughes, makes a snarky comment about the technician being 19 and their previous job filling popcorn. Considering that their is a huge shortfall in the number of pharmacists that is getting worse. I would like to know what Ms. Hughes suggests would be a better solution than techs, lowering the bar of qualification to be a full pharmacist. On the whole, this article is not informative, serves the interest of the most parasitic elements of American society and does nothing to encourage enlightened debate. Nice going ABC.

We all have the right to expect a trained person doing the pills and evidently we need some new laws because I would swear they used to have to have training? The fact remains - had this gal had schooling in this area she would have known right off she would kill somebody with that dosage. Less room for error trying to figure out exactly what that doctor meant. Walgreen's (and I'm sure other's) care more about getting the labor as cheap as they can back there. At some point profits must take a back seat a tad and things need to be within reason.

It is rather unfortunate that the end result of an leads to loss of aprecious life. But on the other hand no pharmacist comes to work wanting to make any errors. They are human too. Therefore having them over worked with long hours and the pressure to fill so many prescriptions creates a very unfavorable environment. I agree that it is ultimately the responsibilty of the pharmacist not the technician to make sure prescriptions are error free.
The technicians are heavily relied on to assist so it is nottheir fault. They are adequately trained in their responsibility. What the consumer should be concerned with is why these huge corporations will not staff enough help to release the pharmacists to to work in their cognitive ability instead of having them operate say the cash register or pulling trash out of the pharmacy. These prfessionals have earned degrees from 6 years of training and should be required to work as licensed professionals that they are.So for the consumer the next a pharmacist stops to take a moment to counsel you do not hesitate to listen because that could save your life. There are many instances where pharmacists are insulted when trying to offer counseling (which is required by law). They have undergone years of traing to embark on this journey. Not to mention that they are redily available to answer health related questions (for no charge). Everyone in the chain of command has to appreciate the function of a pharmacist. I am not trying to trivialize the mistakes but I am sure everyone has made an error and believe this type of error is not is to live with if you are a pharmacist.

While I feel very sorry for what happened to this family, I can't help but feel like it's our responsibility as patients to have a basic understanding of the medication we're taking, including the dose. Again, this in no way excuses this Walgreen's tech for making this huge error, but before taking any new medication I always research it myself, and whenever I pick up a refill, I double-check to make sure the dose is correct. I think it's really very important that people protect themselves this way. After all, we're all human, and humans make mistakes. Heck, computers make mistakes!

people make mistakes, it happens. but i also think this 20/20 segment makes walgreens the "bad guy". walgreens is an excellent company to work for. they requires all pharmacy techs to be certifed within a year of joining pharmacy. and yes without the technicians the wait time for your prescription will be very long. people need to take responsibility for themselves also. being a tech myself i feel that i am overworked and underpaid. working in a busy pharmacy i hardly get any breaks or lunches. i work just as hard as the pharmacist. we basically do all the work except the verifing and counseling. we are the first people customers meet. the walgreens system is very advance. they have put a lot of money to ensure mistakes do not happen. i have been working for them for over 8 years in the pharmacy. the advancements the have made within the last 8 years is incredible. i believe not everyone can be a pharmacy tech. there are even schools for people to learn to be a tech. i feel bad for the families that were affected but how come 20/20 "picked" on walgreens. i wonder? walgreens paid for their mistakes. and when the cvs pharmacist came running out of the store to talk to the patient? i felt that was staged in my opinion. i also believe that pharmacists are overworked as well. maybe the law should restrict how many hours a pharmacist should work. i know pharmacist that would work 14 hour days and be tired. the sign-log that we have patients sign is for only certain insurances. if you actually read it, it states -if you do not have coverage as of todays date, you will reimburse walgreens for payment of your medication. you always have the right to talk to the pharmacist. how are we ever denying you that right? i love my job and i stand by my company.

Medical errors happen around 100 thousands a year. The wrong drug dose is one of the most common.

Walgreen's does have an in house training program for their pharmacy techs, and they do become state certified. This was a tragic mistake, but the fact that the girl used to work at a movie theatre is irrelevant. How many people used to work at McDonalds flipping burgers while going to college? Plenty. Does that mean they are inept? Hardly.

I know personally that Walgreens employs techs that have previous experince in filling scripts,in most states techs are not required to be certified by the state, whose blame is that? All techs that are employed by Walgreens are required to be Pharmacy Technician Board Certified, a naional certification their jobs depend on their passing this certification or not, they have one year to accomplish this by working side by side with a Pharmacist to get proper training to teach them the trade. The tech fills the script and get it ready but ultimately it is the pharmacist who is responsible for checking dosage, pill accuracy, pill counts, patient instructions, and confirming any misreadings with the prescribing Dr. should there be any questions. Walgreens takes great pride in its customers especially its pharmacy customers, they are genuinely concerned and driven to provide quality NOT quantity. As for the popcorn job for the tech prior to her Walgreens position..I used to be a car salesman but hey, a Bachleors degree and several years later I manage a large retail store. Everyone starts somewhere, what did the reporter do for her first job before she was trained? Makes ya think doesn't it....

Speaking as a Walgreens Pharmacy Tech I really do feel bad for the families of the patients shown. But I do sort of feel professionally attacked by the reporter.

Every day we spend half of our shifts trying to contact the doctors for everything from nonsensical directions to drugs/ formulations that don't even exist while simultaneously fending off irate patients who really don't seem to care if the drug or dose is correct they just want their pills RIGHT NOW!

Not to mention I've been yelled at by patients for asking if they have any questions for the pharmacist on duty. "What?! Do you think I can't figure it out on my own?!" If we asked every patient who brought aspirin/cough syrup/Prilosec OTC to the counter to wait while we ran a check against their profile for any possible interactions most of them would probably try to get us fired for "Wasting their time". (Someone did try to get me fired for checking an aspirin/coumadin interaction with that excuse)

As to the training of techs... only 3 of the 14 other technicians I work with are NOT working to get into pharmacy school. We all try to learn as much as possible from the Pharmacists and interns!

Feel free to ask us any questions that the 20/20 brought up! We'll answer them as honestly as we can! I've been fielding them ever since that was shown.

I would like to know if is there any way to get in contact with karen. I had the same thing happen and would like to talk to her