Pharmacies Mistakes Can Kill

[Monday]

A distraught senior citizen phoned her doctor's office.
"Is it true," she wanted to know, "that the medication you prescribed has to be taken for the rest of my life?"
"Yes, I'm afraid so," the doctor told her.

There was a moment of silence before the senior lady replied, "I'm wondering, then, just how serious is my condition because this prescription is marked 'NO REFILLS'."

[bettyeanne]

Originally Posted by Monday

A distraught senior citizen phoned her doctor's office.
"Is it true," she wanted to know, "that the medication you prescribed has to be taken for the rest of my life?"
"Yes, I'm afraid so," the doctor told her.

There was a moment of silence before the senior lady replied, "I'm wondering, then, just how serious is my condition because this prescription is marked 'NO REFILLS'."

That is hysterically funny!!!! Thanks!

[kandy313]

hospitals make mistakes too about giving meds,i had to go for a kidney infection and told them i was allergic to sulfa drugs and later they brought me some pills in a little cup to take before i went home,i trusted them since i had already told them of my allergies and i was lucky i took one there before i got home and took one that was percribed to me,it was a sulfa drug and i almost died. i colapsed in the waiting room at the hospital before i left and when i woke up there was like 10 ppl working on me. now before i take any thing i always make sure.

[alpayton]

Originally Posted by bettyeanne

It never fails, every time we move and have to change pharmacies, we have this same argument ... they insist generic is OK and we insist on brand!! I have even picked the prescription up and had to take it back because they had taken it upon themselves to fill it with generic! They think you are out of your mind to spend that kind of money for brand when you can get generic so much cheaper. I told one of them once, "I don't give a krap if it's $500, my finances are none of your business and the day I need you to manage them I will let you know!!" grrrrrrrr

As a pharmacy technician of 10+ years and the daughter of a pharmacist and owner of an independent pharmacy, I think I can shed some light on this situation. In some states, and it may be that way in yours, it's law that the pharmacy fill the prescription with the lowest cost generic available. According to the Kentucky Board of Pharmacy News bulletin..."Kentucky law requires pharmacists to substitute and dispense US Food and Drug administration (FDA)-approved generic drugs when presented with a prescription for a brand name drug, unless otherwise instructed by the patient or his/her practitioner. Although a few exceptions to this regulation exist, it generally applies to the great majority of prescriptions for brand name drugs. Either the prescriber or patient may direct the pharmacist to forego the substitution regulation and dispense brand name medication.
The prescriber generally directs the pharmacist through a designation
written on the prescription such as ?do not substitute? or ?dispense
as written.? The patient generally does so by oral direction. The pharmacist is required to dispense brand medication when so directed." I highly suspect each and every state has something extremely similar. To avoid the frustration that you experience when changing pharmacies, call ahead to the pharmacy that you will be going to and let them know of your preference. This way, you won't have the frustration that you've had previously.

As for the pharmacy making mistakes, it really shouldn't happen. It does, but it shouldn't. Before a prescription leaves a pharmacy, no matter where it is filled, it should be verified by a licensed pharmacist for authenticity, completeness, and accuracy. Every pharmacy has liability insurance for instances that cause illness and/or death and do NOT want to have to use it, but it's there. If a pharmacy makes a mistake, it could mean that the pharmacy or pharmacist that is on duty will accumulate a violation or complaint against them with the State Board of Pharmacy. Enough of those and the Board will come and take their license to practice pharmacy away.

[omega]

A couple months ago, I went to Target to pick up a refill and I checked the bottle but didn't look inside. When I got home I noticed they were a different color so I called them. The pharmacist said they ran out of the others but this one was the same, but from a different manufacturer and would work the same. No way - I took them 4 times and realized things were getting worse so I called them again. They said I "shouldn't" be having any trouble as they were the same medicine. I told them they might be, but I was having trouble and they weren't working for me. In the meantime, they had gotten my regular ones in and I said I wanted to return the ones I had and exchange them. So that's what they did and the regular ones worked fine....

[alpayton]

With generic medications, the color of a medication can change from month to month depending on which manufacturer the pharmacy has on hand at the time you get your prescription filled. More times than not, the pharmacy has one primary wholesaler that they order brand and generic medications from and numerous other secondary wholesalers that they'll get cheaper generic medications from. When the pharmacy orders their generic medications from their primary wholesaler, they're sent whatever manufacturer's product the primary wholesaler has in stock at the time the order was placed. The only difference in the different manufacturers are supposed to be the fillers that are used, not the active ingredients, so the pharmacy was correct in that it should have worked the same as the other manufacturer's product. However, some fillers do not work the same for every person. If you find that a particular manufacturer's product seems to work best for you, request that the pharmacy always dispense that manufacturer's generic product to you. They can stock that manufacturer's product just for you. They may not want to, but they can do it. As a long time employee of an independent pharmacy where customer service is our number one priority, we strive to keep our customers happy. If our customers want a certain manufacturer, that's what they get, even if it means we have to pay more for it and it cuts into our profit a bit. We have found that some of the chain stores (ie. Target, Walmart, CVS, Walgreens, etc.) will not give up that profit for anything and will continue to dispense the cheapest generic medications no matter what adverse effects the customer/client complains of. We have heard it over and over again. There's just no excuse for it.