Patients Often First Line Of Defense Against Prescription Mista...

While every patient and every patient's family deserve nothing but the best, it is possible for mistakes to happen. I have seen the most competent and intelligent pharmacists misread something small. One thing that I think is scary that was mentioned in the article was the reliance on automated prescriptions and e-prescribing. I can honestly say, at least on a retail setting, that approximately 5-10% of those scripts have errors on them: two different sets of directions, wrong dosages, wrong strengths. Therefore, I hate to hear that we rely on that too much or that we herald that as a savior. All pharmacy systems have numerous safety measures in place, but at the end of the day, vigilance truly is necessary on everyone's part. As a side note to expand, some tips from your neighborhood pharmacy:
1) try to understand your insurance. Pharmacy staff is generally more than happy to help explain discrepancies in the cost and your expected copay, but at the end of the day, the insurance company sets the price. If you take

too much time away from the pharmacist or staff, you are taking time away from filling scripts (or properly counseling other patients in some cases). That, as well as not asking the pharmacy to ring up your store items because you don't want to wait in line or don't want two transactions can help the staff focus on their true job. If everything looks dead, ask if it is ok, but don't assume your purchase of lipstick is more important than the script in front of the pharmacist.
2) As with that, walking up to the pharmacist/staff while they are in the middle of something and saying "excuse me, excuse me, can you help me?" or any variation can also create some unwelcome distractions. As a rule of thumb, wait for someone to head to the pick-up or consultation window, then ask your question.
3) If it is for a medication that is not urgent, try not to say "I'm gonna wait" or "well, i was planning on waiting, geesh" when asked when you'd like to pick it up. Pharmacies can fill hundreds of scripts a day, and the best policy of all is never to rush anything. Quick pharmacists are not bad pharmacists, but it is another burden that is nice when it can be avoided. Pharmacies are not McDonalds: if you get an extra pickle on your burger you won't die, but if the wrong pill goes in your bottle, you know the rest. Treat the pharmacy world as you would a doctor: pharmacists are doctors that have chosen to specialize in medicine. Don't lower them to a fast food chain.
4) PAY ATTENTION. Every day we have someone call that picked up the wrong med because they weren't paying attention. As the article says, look at the med, ask what it treats, ask if there are any side effects. Someone would be more than happy to explain. Talking on your cell phone while picking up? Poor choice (and just plain rude manners)

I know that all seems harsh, but no pharmacist wants to make a mistake and beyond that, everyone wants to ensure you are getting the best use of your medications. It's important to put things into perspective and truly incorporate pharmacy into your health care team. By actively engaging in conversations with your pharmacist (and one, not multiple based on the best discounts when possible) you can have overall better outcomes.

I think what the general public forgets to realize is that people are human and sometimes technology fails...even in medicine. Pharmacists catch mistakes everyday that physicians make, and yet the consumer never realizes the physician was wrong...because the error is "just taken care of" (by the pharmacist) before the final product is delivered to the patient. The media loves to portray the pharmacist in a bad light, but we save lives everyday...most of the time those catches just go unnoticed. It would be interesting to see the news report a story about how many times the pharmacist saved the physician's license, rather than about how many errors are made by a pharmacist every year...Might change the perspective of the consumer.

It is a tragedy that a patient died, I personally know about all the safe guards that are in place in pharmacies today. unfortunately even with all those safe guards mistakes happen. Pharmacies today take every possible measure to prevent mistakes in there entirety. People always wonder why it can take upwards of an hour to fill a script "you just have to throw pills in a bottle". I would say 15% of prescriptions require some sort of clarification from the prescribing Physician due to writing incorrectly. 20% have some sort of insurance issue, 50% have interactions with other medications that have to be looked into, and 100% are filled as ACCURATELY as possible with special attention to what is being dispensed.
With the increasing amount of prescriptions that people are on now a days, it is very important that you know and understand your medications!

Not trying to take away from the tragedy that happened. If it is the Pharmacys fault I would want justice too. But I also understand that human error will never go away, it is a part of being HUMAN!

Be safe don't take these dangerous(toxic) pharma drugs. An improper filling is the least of problems.

There is a bigger issue. Patients need to start taking responsibility for their own health care. I don't know how many patients I see in a days time that have no clue the names of there medications. Then you ask, what do you take these for? Some have vague responses while others have no response. It is scary. This is coming from individuals that are at least in there 50's. I don't know how many times I say "write your medications down and keep it in your wallet". The patient states "Yeah, they have told me that before". Patients are amazing sometimes.

hello that is not the only kroger store they need to check all the pharmacist kroger store because they need to check the one at alum creek dr on the far east side and they need to check the one in whitehall on e broad st but all of them need to be check and some of them worker need more training thank-you

ER Nurse wrote:

There is a bigger issue. Patients need to start taking responsibility for their own health care. I don't know how many patients I see in a days time that have no clue the names of there medications. Then you ask, what do you take these for? Some have vague responses while others have no response. It is scary. This is coming from individuals that are at least in there 50's. I don't know how many times I say "write your medications down and keep it in your wallet". The patient states "Yeah, they have told me that before". Patients are amazing sometimes.

Society (through TV, literature, school etc.) has trained people to be dependant on government, doctors, businesses, technology and so on. People have been dumbed down so the previous listed can profit off of them. People have no idea what is going on around them, whats in their food, water, air etc. But they do know what time their favorite TV show comes on.

Yes kudos to all the pharmacists that put up w/ what you have too. Your role is definitely taken for granted I have witnessed many times!
Thousands of new meds to keep up & learning all the info about them, dealing w/ insurance, DRs mistakes & making out their hand writing & last BUT not least the PATIENTs thats a whole other story I witness..very stressfull!! & you deserve a nice salary...

Mistakes do happen and there should always be a double check system when it comes to giving out meds. This goes for the nurses in hospitals as well. You double check everything and all scripts should be printed out not hand written because as everyone knows a physician's hand writing is not good. A lawsuit is not going to bring this woman back and I honestly don't know what the family thinks they are going to gain from this. The pharmacist did not do this on purpose Some people get greedy and will sue over anything.

Hey, stupid pharmacists...

When your only job is to the right kind of pill in the right pill jar, then don't screw it up. IT IS A MATTER OF LIFE AND DEATH!

It seems as though my medication has a change in the shape / size / color of some of my meds about every six to nine months. I open the meds before leaving the Pharmacy and then have them confirmed if they look different. I also have changed pharmacy when they did not follow MY directions. I ask for NON child proof containers and it's in my file. If they miss that how can I assure myself that they can read other directions?
Consumers must be aware of their medications and not be afraid to ask questions.

My neck was hurt and they gave me viagra by mistake. I had a stiff neck all night.

Stop going to the big chain stores for your prescriptions....go with an independent pharmacist who is not some corporate clone who processes coupons and giftcards as ploys to lure you into the rest of the store. The $4 prescription wave has come back to bite the pharmacies.$4 prescriptions bring you into the store but the stores cant sustain paying pharmacists so what happened??? Pharmacist and tech hours are cut...people are out of jobs....pharmacists are now overworked without sufficient help. So.....people are injured or die....AND THE STATE BOARD COULD CARE LESS!!!

You have no idea what you are talking about....stupid

Fink wrote:

Hey, stupid pharmacists...
When your only job is to the right kind of pill in the right pill jar, then don't screw it up. IT IS A MATTER OF LIFE AND DEATH!

PILLGRRLL wrote:

You have no idea what you are talking about....stupid
<quoted text>

Hey stupid pharmacist,
Don't act like you're doing pharmacological research behind the counter. 95% of the time you're taking what the doctor writes down pulling that jar off the shelf, counting out the pills and putting them in that little container for the patient. Oh and the other 5% you might get a real challenge and have to mix two liquids together or put some cherry flavor in the kids cough medicine. Give me a break. You probably work at a grocery store or CVS so shut up and ring up my 6-pack of beer.

some people r old and cant see there meds they trust them people to do there job right i feel sorry for the dead women no the pharmacist

Again STUPID...you have not idea what you are talking about and I will leave it at that.

Fink wrote:

<quoted text>
Hey stupid pharmacist,
Don't act like you're doing pharmacological research behind the counter. 95% of the time you're taking what the doctor writes down pulling that jar off the shelf, counting out the pills and putting them in that little container for the patient. Oh and the other 5% you might get a real challenge and have to mix two liquids together or put some cherry flavor in the kids cough medicine. Give me a break. You probably work at a grocery store or CVS so shut up and ring up my 6-pack of beer.

to all the Pharmacist haters out there...Don't worry soon you will have no pharmacists to fill your medications, because in Ohio - you will go to jail...The only state in the country who would've pursued criminal charges. The Ohio State Board of Pharmacy is terrible. Even the worst state in the country would not have thought up something like this.

http://www.ismp.org/Newsletters/acutecare/art...

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