i hope walgreens gets shut down or looses the abality to sell prescription drugs of any kind. people are now dead. end of story DEAD

It would be really great if ABC would provide e-mail follow-up service for those readers that would (theoretically)
sign up for it within a specific article. Meaning here that when any more articles are published by ABC on this case, I could be e-mailed a link to the follow-up article(s) so that I can be sure not to miss any updates on this important case.
By the way, I saw the original aired report and the Walgreen's higher-up rep was shocking in her evasiveness in (not) answering any questions of accountability. She reminded me of Condi Rice, but more smug. It truly was scary since I use Walgreen's Rx regularly, but my local one is fortunately a good one currently.

Oh sure.....do something wrong, then try to prevent the public from knowing about it, so it can happen again.

Why has this taken years to settle? It seems to me, they gave her the wrong dosge, she had a stroke, the only question is : criminal charges against the person that filled it because she is not a pharmacist? and where to put the decimal point in the check for the plaintiff....

I dont know, Im no attorney, but that's how I summarize the info above

So 4 incorrectly filled prescriptions out of 500 million. Let's see, that's 0.0000008%. What a terrible record.

This is called "death by decimal", usually caused by a badly handwritten Rx usually without a leading zero ie 0.10 mg.

Scrips are not that hard to read by a lay person, please do that. If the doc has called the Rx in, ask to see it. Do your own QA especially with pediatric meds.

The QA process includes the registered pharmacist QAing the filled Rx against the written Rx. Therefore, abcnews, the 19-yr old tech may have filled it but the failure came with the pharmacist's QA.

BTW, be very very careful with generics they have to bioequivalents not necessarily clinical equivalents.

Walgreen's will have to pay.

What all of you are not understanding, is that a technician fills the Rx and a Pharmacist is the final check. Therefore the pharmacist made the only error that counts, not the technician. And the lady that "Laura" says was representing Walgreens that didn't know what she was talking about, well truth be known, that lady has No association with Walgreens and ABC news didn't clearly state who she was connected with. One news story skewed to view how the news wanted it to, and you all will just believe anything. My advice, go to your nearest pharmacy and ask how your prescriptions get filled and the pharmacist will gladly tell you. Then you might have an understanding and not sound so rediculous with your comments.

I think this is unfortunate and to judge beyond that is unfair. I get a lot of Prescriptions filled at my local Walgreens and have never had a problem. That doesn't mean I don't check my meds to see if what I got is correct. I know what all my pills look like so would question anything that was different. Them problem comes with a new Prescription when you don't know what it looks like. It just means I will have to start looking things up on the internet before I take them and make sure I pay attention to what dosage the Dr has given me.Anyone who thinks errors don't happen at every Pharmacy is just kidding themselves.

Well it all sounds like we want to "stick to the man" syndrome. I don't think we all know all facets of this case. We just know what the media tells us. And you know what I don't trust anything the media tells me any more till I see some more reliable sources not just one source. It's all we need to have one more company put out of businesswhen people make mistakes. There are many drug companies that don't do business in this country anymore becuase of the liability in this country. Before too long with all of this overburden from liability in this country you'll be getting your drugs from Pakistan.

From an insider point of view:

I work as a pharmacy technician for a large chain (not Walgreen's). There is no good excuse for an error like this, but we are all human, and we all make mistakes. What is important is that we work hard to limit mistakes of this magnitude. I feel terrible for Mrs. Hippely, and I hope that this kind of mistake is never made again. I believe strongly that all medications should be prescribed electronically or, at the very least, printed in block letters. It can be extremely difficult to decipher some handwriting; Very few days go by at my job when the pharmacy team is not required to contact a physician's office to clarify a prescription (as is always the policy when one is unsure of what's written).

As some have said, it is the responsibility of the pharmacist to ensure that what is given to the patient is what is prescribed, not the technician. We are there to assist the pharmacists only. I don't think the details of this case are crystal clear, so let's hold our judgement and allow the jury to decide. The technician really may not be responsible.

Are you kidding me? A GAG ORDER? Walgreens' customers have the right to know that they could potentially be the next victim of the pharmacist who mis-filled the Hippely prescription! They need to know they should be checking that they were dispensed the correct medication, strength and dosage. This makes Walgreens sound as though they are more concerned about their precious reputation than they are about the lives of their customers.

I took coumadin and each of the tablets for coumadin are different color for the amount that they represent. How can the lady not have known the diffence. And 10 time more? Story sounds fishy. Could be a problem with the doctor also in this case. She should have been going into the doctors office getting her blood tested for coumadin levels.

This is a terrible tragedy, and one that could have been prevented in many ways. Ican't express enough how important it is for patients to talk to their doctors and make sure they understand exactly what they are taking, how much, and how often BEFORE the prescription leaves the doctor's office. It's our responsibility as consumer's to make sure we are getting the right perscription when we pick them up, and if the infomration on the bottle doesn't match what your doctor discussed with you then take the time to question it. I can't imagine ever putting a chemical in my body without knowing exactly what it is, what it does, and how much I am taking. I'm not saying walgreen's isn't at fault here, just that they aren't the only ones. We have to remember anytime there is the human factor there is a chance for error.

I know first hand how bad Walgreens sucks. I have seen them do things all the time that they shouldn't in both the stores I have visited. Not to mention, they are almost always short-handed. How can they run an efficient and reliable business this way??

Dewey: I like your statistics. However, the problem with #'s is that they are as flawed as their analyst (that would be you). If you think Walgreens made only 4 errors in a year, you're highly mistaken and terribly naieve.

Furthermore, give that statistic to the families who have had their love one die from a fatal ADE (adverse drug event). You can add 15 more zero's between your decimal and the 8 and it still doesn't make PREVENTABLE DRUG RELATED DEATHS any easier.

There is a shortage of Liscensed Pharmacist in this country. That's no secret. Where the secret lies is in the Walgreens division that decides that they're going to put a pharmacy on every corner in this country (including those that already have a pharmacy....having walgreens and CVS at the same intersection is WAY too common)when they do NOT have enough Pharmacist to fill the shifts in the stores they already have. More pharmacies than pharmacist is bad math, no matter how you analyze it.

I am a friend of this woman's son. In hopes of not having this kind of tragedy strike other families I believe this should definitely be openly discussed.

My heart goes out to her family.

First of all, I think that everyone here who has something negative to say should keep it to themselves. I personally know this family. Walgreens tore this family apart and stole an innocent life. It is a lot easier to say that "she should have done this" and "they should have done that" looking back in retrospect. What it comes down to is that Walgreens messed up and they should have to pay for it. At the end of the day though, no matter how much money there might be, she is still gone.

And for the record, all those who said "oh well theres so few errors...", imagine for a few minutes what it would be like if she was YOUR mother, YOUR wife, YOUR friend. You might sing a different tune then. It doesnt matter if it is one mistake or a thousand mistakes. It needs to be prevented.

I have a co-worker who's pregnant daughter was given the wrong medication even though the bottle was correctly marked with her name/dr, etc. She followed the directions on the bottle and ended up taking blood pressure medication instead of the vitamins that her dr. prescribed. She ended up losing the baby and almost died herself. Walgreen's had their attorney go to the ER and tried to get her to sign a release immediately even before she was fully coherent. Luckily there was a friend present that had the attorney removed from the room.

I have another co-worker whose elderly mother was also given the wrong prescription under the wrong label and caused her to be hospitalized. When Walgreen's was contacted regarding the error, all they were worried about was getting the bottle & incorrect medication back. She was told the error would be fixed only after they returned to original bottle/medication (sounded like the wanted to destroy the evidence).

Both of these incidence happened about 1 1/2 years apart at the same Walgreen's location.

DOUBLE CHECK EVERYTHING!!!!!!

If you don't think this happens at every pharmacy, think again. CVS funds some of their broadcasts, so it's no big surprise they didn't mention them as much. The report mainly talks about Walgreens and doesn't even bring into the fact about any other pharmacy, when other pharmacies have made the mistake.
As for the lady not recognizing the pill color change, I can understand. If she was undergoing chemo, I'm sure she wasn't feeling her best (duh), so it's obvious why she wouldn't worry about things like pill color. I don't think it's in any way her fault.

Just like there are bad Walgreens in places, there are bad Walmarts, bad CVS's, etc...

I have regularly taken under my physician's close supervision a Schedule II medication for ADD. I use the simple tablet form. I took my Rx from my doctor to one of our three local Walgreen's (Las Cruces, NM). I ALWAYS check my meds and discovered when I got home that I had been given the TIME RELEASE FORM. I took nice digital photographs of labels and the incorrect med and returned to the pharmacy.

It was instantly corrected with profuse apologies. When I asked the harried tech at the drive what on earth was going on she said,"they just won't hire enough people to take care of the load."

I reported the incident to the New Mexico State Board of Pharmacy but was never informed of a resolution or received a formal apology from Walgreen's. While I must admit that it would probably would not have killed me, the doseage would have been much more than normal and the effects less than pleasant.

Ok, Walgreens, gag me. Jim in Las Cruces, NM.

I take coumadin, I know what it's for, I know it's extremely important to have the right dosis, They check my blood levels on a frequent basis, if some 19 year old told me to take 10x's the dosis that my doctor advised me to take I would double check w/ him first, People, ya gotta be your own advocate! Double check everything!

I'm really sorry for this woman who died and her family. But you really should be double checking your medicine. People come into a pharmacy expecting to have their meds in ten minutes or less as if we're a Mcdonalds but when errors like this happen everyone wants to go sue people. It's not right, you wait 2 hours in a doctor's office and you can't even wait 20 minutes in a pharmacy? Give me a break.

It's very hard to find good technicians and good pharmacists that's another reason Walgreens is so understaffed, not only walgreens other major chains too.

This happened to me once at Walmart but they have a new policy or procedure lately that stopped me from actually taking home the wrong drug. The pharmacists opens the bottle for you to 'examine' it to be sure it is correct and it's a good thing they did because it was 'NOT WHAT THE DOCTOR ORDERED.' Yes ,this should not be 'kept secret' .....we ,the public deserve to know when a life-threatening/ fatal mistake was made as in this case of Walgreen. Personally it would not affect or stop me from patronizing them ,as a matter of fact ,I would have more 'respect' for them if they would publically address this and apologize and correct this problem....and by all means the family needs and deserves compensation...in some way....

What's wrong with this web site(?) ,it's not working ;I posted and it didn't work and another thing is that when you click on the story ,sometimes you get the shorter version and few comments and click another time and get this site with longer story version and over 20 comments. abc ,I have alot of trouble with your web site....it doesn't work at least 75% of the time the way it should....hmmmmm!

"i hope walgreens gets shut down or looses the abality to sell prescription drugs of any kind. people are now dead. end of story DEAD

Posted by: kev "

Yep, that would be great as it would force me to go some distance pharmacy instead of the one up the street! I would certainly love hopping on the bus(I don't drive) just to pick up my prescription ! And the people in my neighborhood ( mostly poor) would love that as well! Stop walgreens now!

Apparently this is a On going this with Walgreen's Just last week my Partner had a prescription filled at a Walgreen's in Tennessee (where we live)for Vicodin and there were 2 different strengths in the bottle. After notifying both the store where this happened and the general managers office in Michigan the only explanation we got was that it was the automated tablet counters fault, because someone had put the "WRONG" dosage in the machine and they filled his prescription before it found be "FIXED" WHO put the Wrong dosage in there in the first place? the only consolation we were offered was that they would replace the wrong dosage pills and offer a "$12.00 refund" big deal; if you end up DEAD from taking the wrong medication. After reading this Story and what happened to us last week, I think we will transfer ALL our prescriptions to another pharmacy I will still be a bit worried if we are taking what we are supposed to be taking It really makes one sit back and wonder how many time has this happened before
I am sorry this had to happen like this and my heart goes out to the Family May she rest in Peace

why do boxes need to be filled by human in the USA ( and therefore introduces a lot of human mistakes)? in france, pills are delivred in a box right from the factory where much no human error is possible - why don't we do the same in the USA ?

I keep reading all these mistakes about Walgreens and it makes me wonder if they have a problem with their prescription filling procedure. I am a pharmacist for Wal-Mart, and it is very difficult for me to imagine a Wal-Mart pharmacy making a coumadin mistake like Walgreen's. We have a lot of checks and double checks in place. There seems to be some misunderstanding about who is to blame for the coumadin error. The mistake lies with the pharmacist. Either the pharmacist did not check the tech's work or failed to see the error. If the pharmacy was understaffed, then some blame can be given to the pharmacy manager, maybe the district manager, and maybe the company.

We are not the only company that makes mistakes, we do get notified if any mistakes were made by us. I don't really know what the hell was going on with the Florida Walgreens since techs are not suppose to give out any medications that have not been reviewed by the pharm. To get a better understanding on how the prescriptions are filled ill put it in order. 1. The prescription is scanned and typed by the tech.2 the pharm. Reviews the script info that was entered (this is the only way the lable will print out only if it is right) 3 the tech fills the rx,4 the pharm then reviews the med and one last time review the script info then it can be released, also the image of what the pill is suppose to look like is on the computer when the finally check is done, also the lable that is given to the patient informs them of the strength, color,shape and writing on the pill. Its like when you buy something from the market you check for the expiration date right? Why don't you check your meds? Something that sensative. I mean we do check them for you but we are still human and make mistakes, not many but we do.

As if Walgreens were the only pharmacies in the world who made mistakes. That's pretty sad to say all Walgreens should shut down. My store helps to save lives everyday. It seems everyone wants to bash Walgreens yet they don't think of how many
peoples' lives we positively affect everyday.