05 May 2011

CVS Dispenses Wrong Medicine, Right Advice

Drug Store Museum photo uploaded to Flickr by KB35, Ken

New mom Anna Fifield was struggling with her four month-old’s eczema, which sent her to seek advice on the MOTH [Moms on the Hill] listserv. Their responses sent her to a specialist, who then sent her to the CVS at 500 12th Street SE to fill a script to treat her baby.

She finally had beside her a bottle of Keppra to treat the baby.

But, wait: Keppra is used to treat epileptic seizures– in adults. The baby’s doctor had prescribed Keflex, a pediatric antibiotic for skin problems.

Fifield, who allowed her name to be shared from MOTH, did not catch the problem until she pondered the dosage. Six milliliters seemed like a large dose for an infant, and there were pregnancy/alcohol warnings on the bottle.  Uh, if  it is not safe for pregnant women, should it go to a baby who so far only ingests milk?

The drug’s name threw her off because the generic name was on the bottle. Confused, she called the pharmacy where, she reports,  the woman on the phone was “very dismissive”of her concerns.

Fifield pressed on and asked her to check again.

“It was while she was checking that I Googled the generic name on the bottle. She realized at the same time because when she came back on the line, she simply said, ‘Can you bring the medicine back?’  No apology, no explanation, nothing. I asked to speak to the head pharmacist and got an equally blasé response,” Fifield told the MOTH community.

She was shocked and upset, but also concerned that others — especially those tired, frazzled or otherwise overwhelmed — would not have noticed and could have done harm.  While anyone can make a mistake or read something wrong, the overtired, elderly or those with trouble reading may be particularly vulnerable to taking the wrong medicine.

It turns out Fifield is far from alone her her experience of getting the wrong prescription at the CVS on 12th Street, SE.

Whether it is pharmacy error or bad doctor scripts, the many reports lobbed to the MOTH listserv over the next few days should make all aware they need to check their prescriptions, as more than one seasoned mom advised. “We count the pills [from another pharmacy]” one said.

Another parent reported taking 30 days worth of the wrong drug, but years ago, and was told that pharmacies make mistakes frequently.

Still, some Hill dwellers have  switched to the nearby Harris Teeter for their prescriptions due to the allegedly hit-or-miss service at the CVS on 12th (The CVS on Pennsylvania and 7th Street, SE, garnered some praise).

Another Hill mother, Naomi Barry-Perez, has never received a wrong prescription “but [I] have received expired medicine on a few occasions.” Barry has also received less medicine than prescribed.  “As a result, we switched to Harris Teeter and will not go back,” she stated.

CVS has 201,000 employees and its retail pharmacy segment operates 7,182 retail drugstores in 41 states, Puerto Rico and of course, the District.  So, statistically, there is a lot of room for error. We love its usually efficient MinuteClinic, but the pharmacies are often very busy, buzzing places with lines and waits for prescriptions that can’t be filled that day. My own home  phone number is so close to the CVS Pharmacy on 12th Street, I get many of their calls.

Michael J. DeAngelis, CVS’s public relations director at the Woonsocket, RI, CVS Caremark headquarters quickly responded to THIH that he was sorry to hear about  the incident. “The health and safety of our customers is our top priority and we are committed to accuracy and safety in our prescription filling process,” he stated.

Referencing the Fifield case, DeAngelis stated, “we extend our sincere apologies to the Fifield family regarding this matter.  … Based on our initial investigation, it appears that her child’s prescription was transcribed incorrectly with a similar-sounding medication and the mistake was not caught during our quality assurance process.  We are fully investigating how this occurred and will take the necessary corrective actions to prevent a recurrence.  Fortunately, Ms. Fifield’s child did not ingest any of the medication that was incorrectly dispensed. It is always good practice to check your prescriptions before taking them, which is what happened in this case.”

A few days after the incident, Fifield got a call from the pharmacy supervisor for all CVS stores in the area, and told her  that he was aware there had been a lot of problems and he was trying to sort them out.  He said he had taken over supervision of his group of stores a few months ago and assured Fifield he investigating and would conduct an internal review process.

“I felt quite reassured that he was trying to make sure it would not happen again,” Fiefield said.

For those with prescription-filling issues, DeAngelis noted CVS’s district pharmacy supervisor for the Capitol Hill area, Nicholas Turos, “is happy to speak with any customer who has an issue with one of the pharmacies in his district.”

“Please inform your readers that if they would like to speak with him to inform their pharmacy and he will contact them within 24 hours.  Customers can also contact CVS/pharmacy toll-free at 1-800-SHOP-CVS to discuss any concerns they have about the service our stores provide,” DeAngelis stated.

So read your prescriptions dispensed to you and your family. Getting the kids to swallow the pink stuff–that’s another story.

Have you ever taken something that says “Drink Me” but which was not meant for you?

 

 

Tags: , , ,


What's trending

9 responses to “CVS Dispenses Wrong Medicine, Right Advice”

  1. Caroline says:

    Former pharmacy technican here…. Grocery store pharmacies tend to be better because they’re smaller and less busy than CVS. Instead of one overworked pharmacist and an army of pharmacy technicians, they’ll have a pharmacist and maybe one tech at most. This means the pharmacist will probably be filling your prescription himself and will be less likely to make mistakes since he has the knowledge and education that the technicians lack. Those hand-written prescriptions can easily be deciphered improperly, and most techs wouldn’t know the difference, especially for a baby medication that’s not frequently dispensed. The pharmacist checks their work, of course, but in a hectic environment I could see some mistakes getting overlooked. And from what I heard from my counterparts at CVS, those pharamacies are generally chaotic and poorly managed. It certinaly sounds like that’s the case here. A decent pharmacy would have put the pharmacist on the phone immediately when the woman explained her concern.

    Even if your medication is a generic there should be the brand name equivalent in teeny tiny letters at the bottom of the label. Be sure to check that every time, no matter where you go. And definitely give them a call if your pills look different than usual.

  2. Sarah says:

    Thank you for reporting on this. I previously filled all of my scripts at the CVS on 12th. After an incident where they were out of my medication, did not call me to tell me, and made me walk all of the way down to the CVS at Penn & 7th to see if it was in stock there (they were unwilling to call to check), I stopped going there.

    I may swtich to HT.

  3. Naomi Bernier says:

    I’ve had decent service at the 12th St CVS, but this gives me pause. Once at the 7th St location, I filled a perscription for an EpiPen, which is a powerful emergency allergy medication. It’s a very intense device with a needle and plunger mechanism and I wanted some advice about how to use it in an emergency.

    The response from the clerk at the consulation window: “Read the instructions on the box, okay???”

  4. Anne says:

    @ Sarah – Same thing happened to me just a month ago. After reading this article, I think I will take @Caroline’s advice and go to HT or another grocery story in the hood. Messing with people’s prescriptions is a big deal. What if this happened to an elderly person who can’t read the fine print or think to Google it. This mom took an extra step, but I might not have. This is just scary and completely unprofessional.

  5. JH says:

    This same CVS also messed up one of my prescriptions… the gave me about 1/5th of the prescribed dosage. Luckily I caught it while I was still in line, but they would have never known if I didn’t say something.

  6. Steve says:

    Thanks for the timely article. I’m currently awaiting an explanation from this CVS as to how my flexible spending account is showing a deduction for a medication that CVS employees insist is out of stock. Moreover, I’ve received an automated message telling the prescription is ready for pickup!

  7. Jeremy says:

    This pharmacy is terrible. Scripts are never ready on time. There is always a huge line. One time I had to get a script filled there and the tech told me the drug did not exist. I had to look up the name of the script on my phone to assure him that yes this drug existed. He asked the Pharmacist and the Pharmacist didn’t even know it. All it took was 1 minute on my phone to find it.

    Once I go back to the doctor, I’m going to get new scripts and then transfer them all over to Harris Teeter or Whitman Walker. Whitman Walker evidently delivers now.

    Anytime I go to that CVS I know I’ll be waiting for at least 30 minutes over some stupid mistake they have made.

  8. Geoff says:

    This is not surprising given the level of service you get at the 12th Street CVS. There can be 20 customers waiting in line and the clerks are nowhere to be found. They are mostly rude, very lazy and have the ability to ignore the lines. This includes the manager on duty.
    How CVS stays open is anyone’s guess. Would love to see more competition on the Hill.

  9. Elizabeth Festa says:

    Various studies put prescription error ill effects, injury and even death (errors from ALL sources, hospitals, doctors, pharmacies, etc.) in the thousands annually, while pharmacy error lawsuits and law firm representation are rampant, according to cursory Google searches of US Pharmacist and Consumer Report, law firms and other sources, with the rate of error increasing steadily as more and more prescriptions are filled–and this will only continue a health care coverage increases under federal legislation and as people live longer. Triple check.

Social Media Auto Publish Powered By : XYZScripts.com
Add to Flipboard Magazine.