It is absolutely imperative that you check your prescription either before you leave the pharmacy or, if picked up by someone else, immediately before taking it. Pharmacists are human and errors are inevitable. It is up to you to ask your doctor to write out in English the name and the dosage of the prescription and check it against what you're given at the drug store. If necessary check with the pharmacist to see that the name and dose that the doctor gave you matches what the pharmacist has filled for you. Last week I received three wrong prescriptions (doses) from a major medical insurer. If I hadn't been saavy enough to read the label I likely wouldn't be writing this comment today.
It's your life; Its your responsibility!

When I saw the headline of this story it did not surprise me i any way. I live in Yuba City California and the Walgreens in this area are the worst if have ever seen. I agree that you must be aware of the med's that are given to you. I have had the wrong med's given to me several times from Walgreens. When you speak with them about it they always have an excuse "The Blame Game" as to what happened. Approx. three years ago I had surgery on my shoulder. The doctor gave me a pain medication to take, my husband took the script into the store. It took over 5 hours to get filled and when he got home with the med's my mother happened to read the bottle and it was wrong. When we called Walgreens they stated that it was what the doctor had ordered. After speaking with the doctors office I found out that the doctor did not mae the error it was Walgreens that decided to fill the prescription with a different medication then what the doctor ordered. The med that the doctor ordered requires a certian script pad. Since he used the wrong one Walgreens took it upon themselve to fill it with a different med instead of calling the doctor. If I took the medication it could have been deadly. You must be aware of the medication you take and always ASK QUESTIONS. Don't be scared to ask questions that is what they are soppose to be there for. Also, ask what the medication is, you are not excepted to know the names of the medications that are given to you. That is why they are behind the counter not you. I truly beleive that Walgreens as a whole are in for the money only, they always have a reason for their mistakes. I was under the impression that you can take your medication to any Walgreens and they can bring up all your information from any store. According to our Walgreens that is not true..Each store is suppose to take your information..I truly beleive they don't know what they are doing and must hire students out of store before they are ready...

A small victory for the public.

Who is at fault in this will be decided by the legal system. What is important to take from this is that every person have a system in place to know the name and directions and reason for each drug they take.

While pharmacist have legal and ethical responsibility for the accuracy of what is dispensed, people must exercise vigilant responsibility for their own care. Members of a family must take this responsibility if obtaining medication for children or other adults who cannot act on their own behalf.

It's a lovely idea for people to take complete responsibility for their own health, but not a realistic one. Someone on chemotherapy with three children is probably barely able to remember her own name, let alone review her prescriptions carefully. Good family support died in the 1950s in the US and social services are pretty thin on the ground. I worked in health care for 20 years and one of the ground rules is that patients are compromised by their illness and not always capable of doing what they could normally do. With a seriously ill patient, the health care provider bears the full responsibility for care. It's great to be proactive about your health, but it's not always possible.

Here in the South, generic medications used to fill prescriptions are different every month. This is an alleged cost-saving measure used by even chain pharmacies. As a former journalist, I find much I'd like to dig deeper into with regard to pharma price plans & wholesaler manipulation. The point is that if the color & shape of your pills is changing monthly, it is nearly impossible for a responsible consumer to detect whether they're receiving the correct dosage of the correct medication - particularly if they're already worried & sick & distracted.

it is the pharmacy's responsiblity to check meds before it's given out to patients....but also the patients responsibility to always check their meds before leaving the pharmacy....having everyone working together will help prevent serious damages or even dealths.....always ask/call the pharmacy/doctor if you have any questions on your medications....don't just asume things..

I do not know if any of the walgreens do this but I know CVS has HIGH SCHOOL students filling the drugs. I do not know about you guys but when I was in high school I really did not pay attention. Who is watching out for us. I know that people make mistakes we are human. But I should feel some comfort that these people get paid this much money they should do there job

I think the only way to make the pharmacy's , pharmacist and tech's responsible for the actions that they take and the peoples lives that are in thier hands is to 1)Call poision control, go to the hospital or back to your doctor (document that you went to the doctor for treatment to make sure there wont be short or long term problems)2)Go back to the pharmacy and get a copy of your prescription make sure the doctor didnt write it wrong 3) dont give the bottles back to them to relable it, make them give you a new bottle 3) Call the 1-800 number that the store has and file a complaint 4) Call your states pharmacy board that review's thier license and file a writen complaint ( most state's will only allow only 2 mistakes a year before the pharmacist has to go in front of the board. 5)Hit them in the pocketbook most of the time they will settle out of court with you for about $1000.00 We have had this happen to us 2 times in the last 2 years from 2 diffrent pharmacys, the last time tried to overdose both of our boys age's 1 and 2 if they would have had more then 1 dose they would have had to go to the hospital and had medical treatment for a overdose i was just lucky that after the first dose i was paying attetion to what the dose was and relized it was to much 10X to much.And that one was a codine.The probelem is alot of parents wouldnt have even given it a second thought about the dose being wrong till it was to late.

I just love the way the very first posting is shifting the blame onto the victim - If a Walgreens fills a prescription with pills, say the generic equivalent of the prescribed pills at a different dosage level, how in the heck are you supposed to check that, look up the pill codes themselves in your Physicians Desk Reference?! How about when a Walgreens fills two prescriptions for methadone and another pain prescription that are fatal if taken together - any warning required there, or is the patient supposed to look up "interaction precautions" in his very own PDR before taking anything? Anyone who is filling a prescription MUST be responsible for correctly filling the prescription and for fully informing the patient of drug interactions if filling two interacting meds simultaneously. I'd take that even farther and say they should check for any other "current" prescriptions filled by them for that person and print out interaction precautions as well as including them on a warning sticker. It's not hard and clearly from Walgreens hiring practices it doesn't even require a pharmac degree - or maybe that shortage of actual pharmacs is part of their problem.

Hi

i think it is a great incident but I think it is a small victory for people.