Dangerous Warning CVS Gave MY SchIV Med To Someon with Same Last Name Without Properly Verifying Them!!

[SeasOfChange]

I went to pick up my Ambien 10mg Thursday 8/17 and the pharmacy tech told me some one already picked it up. I only go when I can get a ride since i have no care i had not been in CVS for 2 weeks. What a mess!!

I had them pull the sign out log and the medication was definitely picked up by someone with my last name.

Their verification process is already shoddy, no ID is needed and the tech say: "Ms. **** your adress still *******? Every time customer never really listens and just says "yes" and takes the medication.

I was able to get my medication filled, but what about the poor customer who got my Ambien? what if she was picking up cardiac medication or a medication for a child. I asked them to find her so she could get that medication back and her right medication.

I also asked them to require a photo ID anytime my meds are picked up and strongly suggested they do for sll pick-ups but 2 days later when I picked up my water pill no asked for my ID just the address verification. hen you think about it they givrWhich is no verfication when both times they ask if you still at your address. I listen now, but I see customers just go okay and off they go.

This pappen Thursday, and they did not honor my ID request Saturday.

I am going to call the pharmacy board and explain what happened and report this, because as i type this out the ramications of this shoddy way of verifying a person could have serious ramofications especially if a child got thr Ambien, most people trust the pharmacist and probably do not even check the label.

I cannot do it anymously because the reveiw board would need the names to reseach the sin out sheets and check with the other person.

[BaseballMommy]

CVS is scary! I've had a couple of incidents with them. One time, after surgery my sister picked up my script. After taking it I realized that although it was the correct medication, the bottle had someone elses name on it. A day later, my sister (a nurse) called them to let them know their error and gave them all of the information so the other person would receive their med as well. She was flying out that day and I was home in bed and the manager - screaming on the phone- told us that we had to bring the bottle back to the store or else they were going to get in big trouble. We told her that it was not possible for aforementioned reasons and they hounded us by phone for about two weeks. We never brought it back as it was not our fault.

Another time, I picked up a SchII script and didn't count them at the counter (big mistake). When I got home it was short 15 pills. I went right back to the store and was told (no kidding). If you're going to make a big deal about it you better call the police because we did nothing wrong! BTW, I'm a mild mannered 47 year-old woman, never raising my voice.

I am done with them.

[SpaceMatters]

@cork61 and @SeasOfChange , wow, serious stories. Thanks for sharing. May definitely help others on the board.

Best I have is once (like 20 years )my husband's eye drops (pink eye I think) were actually ear drops. Somehow misfilled, as name was correct. We were young and I was not as clued in to the medicine scene, so he just got them replaced. I believe this was CVS which used to be called Peoples back in the day.

[Allycat]

I agree, CVS is out of control. A couple of years ago I had two different medications in the same bottle!! They looked very similar but thank god I noticed the difference. The other med mixed in was for high blood pressure. Can you imagine if I took that 3 times a day as I have no blood pressure issues! When I brought it in the pharmacist said "no big deal, at least you didn't them". When I went back several weeks later he was gone. I did not file a formal complaint, but I should have. I have read they have been fined recently for poor standards. Always double check your medications!

[waffles101]

Yikes! All these stories make me think that CVS has an accident on its hands just waiting to happen.
I think it's ridiculous that we'll need to do half the pharmacists' jobs ourselves by double checking and counting pills. It will probably take a story in the news and a lawsuit before anything is done about it.

[dingleberry]

Sweet! Someone is going to be sleeping really good tonight! Or go on a sleepwalking/driving rampage. Or hallucinate if they take to much and try to stay awake. Multiple possibilities of awesomeness. Why does nothing good like that ever happen to me in my life ..

On a serious note yes its probably a liability for them to be giving medications to the wrong people, just wish it could happen to me once in a while.

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Another time, I picked up a SchII script and didn't count them at the counter (big mistake). When I got home it was short 15 pills. I went right back to the store and was told (no kidding). If you're going to make a big deal about it you better call the police because we did nothing wrong! BTW, I'm a mild mannered 47 year-old woman, never raising my voice.

I am done with them.[/QUOTE]

What the hell. First off im just cyrious how you manage to count them at the counter if you have an rx for anything over 15 pills in the bottle, do your pour them out on the counter? seriously how is this done, I am curious..

But that is secondary in importance. I cannot imagine being treated that way, I would have called the police! Morons they should be checking their records and reported for shenanigans like that, I'd be so pissed!

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Oh and for the dumb women/man behind the counter, yes it is a HUGE deal especially for pain patients and THEY should know that! 15 pills could mean someone has to go 5 days or more without medication, and calling the doctor and saying they "shorted" you at the minimum is a hassle, at the maximum well, use your imagination, a HUGE hassle at least requiring going BACK to the office for a written script for 15 pills..

[Va2323]

I got shorted about 6-10 pills once not at CVS but I went right back and told them I'd call the police and my doctor, they seemed scared. Asked how many obese short I said 15 and gave them to me, I figure it was worth my trouble to get some extras, lol and I was 28 year old male, as long as there in the wrong raise some hell and get what you deserve.

[TenaciousE]

At least the CVS in my town requires that you provide them with your full address and date of birth before they hand a controlled substance prescription over to you. This procedure was just recently implemented. So, I assume they must have encountered many problems or it a new state law.

But, I do have a HUGE issue with CVS and that is their relentless automated phone calls reminding me that it is time for my next refill. Although they never say what the refill is for. Probably because it is an automated message and perhaps HIPPA prevents this.

And if I do not pick up a prescription the day I drop it off, starting the following day, I will get two calls a day (one at 9 AM and the second around 5PM reminding me that my prescription is ready. Seeing that my local CVS is open until 9PM is this really necessary? Between CVS and IOPS calling me relentlessly, it is extremely annoying.

[dingleberry]

I got shorted about 6-10 pills once not at CVS but I went right back and told them I'd call the police and my doctor, they seemed scared. Asked how many obese short I said 15 and gave them to me, I figure it was worth my trouble to get some extras, lol and I was 28 year old male, as long as there in the wrong raise some hell and get what you deserve.

well done, bravo.

[BaseballMommy]

Oh, how I wish I would have called the police! I don't know what could have been done but at least I would have called their bluff and made some sort of hassle for them. Idon't ever use CVS anymore. I found a Mom and Pop nearby and they are just wonderful.

I am a member of AA and one guy in our group said that he had worked for CVS for over a year. He went about helping himself to the "goodies" for all that time before finally getting caught. Sounds like they don't have much of an in-house security system!

[billyboy1965]

About 15 years ago I was prescribed Vicodin ES with refills. When I brought the first refill home, the tablets weren't as big, yet the bottle said ES. She filled it with 5/500. I took it back and she fessed up and said they were out of ES. I made an issue of that. I was more pissed that she thought I'd be stupid enough not to know the difference. I didn't see her working there after that.

A few years ago, I picked up my scripts from the local grocery store. When I got home I realized some woman's medications were in my bag. I don't remember what the medications were but I took that back and made a production of it. They had put my Xanax is her bag and her pills in my bag and the bags were labelled correctly.

I use Walgreen's now because of the drive-through which used to open at 8:00 AM which was great and one of the reasons I switched. Now they open at 9:00 and the drive-through is worthless because I'm long gone by then.

[JoeyButtafuoco]

All high traffic/volume pharmacies make mistakes. This is why I always count my pills out before I pay. The pharm will hand me a tray and butter knife looking thing to count with. I usually will do it off to the side or right at the register if not too busy.

I get several controlled meds and it would really be an issue if I got home only to find out I was 20 short. I don't even think the pharmacy would even do anything about a c2 med if I called complaining of being shorted. I sure as hell would not call the doc office as I feel they would put a strike next to my name. This seems like a common tactic pulled by addicts.

The lesson is double check your meds before you pay. Make sure you recognize the pill, strength, cost, and count.

Retail pharmacists where large volume of scripts are filled have their head down counting as fast as they can go. The laws of human error dictate they are going to make mistakes

[cherrybomb]

@jimmyfingers i do the SAME thing! Sounds crazy but a year or so ago i was going to my regular pharmacy (Pharma Plus for anyone in Canada) and i started noticing (which any pain patient/anxiety will) that helloooo pills are missing! I was furious. Did the count and ten codeine were gone. Oh a side note, i usually pick up my ativan script and codeine at the same time always.

Ok, so i call when i get home, call and complain. I get told that nothing can be done because i had left/came home. I still asked for the manager to call me back--really angry!

So they did, said they would check in to it blah blah.

Next time i go to pick up--and yes, i don't need to get told it was stupid but i didn't check until i was out at the vehicle --they took ten pills from the ativan! Now i'm SUPER pissed off. Go marching in but still get the answer that i "left the store" blah....

Well, the NEXT time i stood there in front of everyone waiting, made them call up my complaints on the computer and counted. Sure enough five missing from T's and ten from ativan. I did this purposely in front of the HEAD pharm lady. Long story short, major investigation, two people got fired/charged as it was ongoing and now people have to show id at that particular pharmacy for anything scheduled.
@chris100 you might like to know about this as i'm talking Pharma Plus in Hamilton. I don't live there anymore but it was a nightmare--once you take the meds out the door you are screwed and glued.

[JoeyButtafuoco]

I dated a pharmacist for a long time and she told me some crazy stories. One alarming story was a large number of pharmacists allowed the techs to fill c4 and c3 meds. I don't know the laws on this or different corporate policies, but a tech doesn't even need a high school education. She also used to say they would find all types of pills on the floor at the end of the day.


60 minutes? had a good segment about the dangers of picking up a script. They found that pharmacies with high traffic made a good many mistakes per day.

When you count the meds out before you pay, you are letting the staff know you are doubling checking. Hopefully every time they put something in a bottle under your name, they become more aware since they know you will be counting them out.

[SpaceMatters]

I got shorted about 6-10 pills once not at CVS but I went right back and told them I'd call the police and my doctor, they seemed scared. Asked how many obese short I said 15 and gave them to me, I figure it was worth my trouble to get some extras, lol and I was 28 year old male, as long as there in the wrong raise some hell and get what you deserve.

I could never count pills at the counter. I am embarrassed enough just picking my PKs up. That is so pathetic. And I have been on monthly meds for 8+ years, so I've picked them up over 100 times. Think it would get easier. Sometimes I wish I lived in NYC instead of a small town.

[Lynx4]

I'm the same way @Waterfall - I get embarrassed and don't count either. My problem is that one of the C2's has 100 pills, another C2 has 120 pills, my benzo bottle has 120 pills, my promethazine is 120 pills, my migraine meds are 30 pills and Lyrica is 60 pills. Just the thought of trying to count all of those on the counter makes me tired I don't even count them when I get home because there are so many of them. So far I always make it to my doctor's appointment so I don't think they are shorting me, and the pharmacist always calls me by my first name when she sees me come in.

I used to count them when I used Walgreens because they shorted me virtually every month until I finally changed pharmacies. One time I was half a bottle short (!!) and one time I was 15 pills short so I went back in and they put the missing medicine in my bottle immediately so they knew what they did. I'm lucky now I guess.

[SpaceMatters]

Just the thought of trying to count all of those on the counter makes me tired I don't even count them when I get home because there are so many of them.

Glad to hear I am not the only one. I know I would end up dropping some and making a huge mess of everything. My guess is the counter counters (lol) have smaller amounts to count?

[Perromaldido]

Rather OT, but it won't cease to amaze me the American way to dispense meds. Those huge 500 or 1000 ct. bottles with the pharmacist counting them. Hadn't our pharmacies all the meds blistered and sealed I would certinaly count them not once but twice without letting the pharmacist look at anything ekse til I'm done. What a gigantic PITA that must be. I wonder where this way of dispensing pills originates from....

[JoeyButtafuoco]

Glad to hear I am not the only one. I know I would end up dropping some and making a huge mess of everything. My guess is the counter counters (lol) have smaller amounts to count?

I do it because I get large scripts. I think there is more room for error when counting out 180 versus 30. My pain doctor now actually encourages his patients to count the meds.

[Lynx4]

@jimmyfingers You are right that higher counts of medicine means they may not count them correctly. I wish they'd use those pill machines where you input a number (say 100) and it spits out 100 pills; no fuss, no mess. Unfortunately I've only seen it at one pharmacy.

My doctor wants me to count my medicine every month too and I used to before I had so many to count. Probably the first time I come up short at the end of the month I'll start counting again. When I used Walgreens I'd count them all but I'd get distracted and have to start all over and it was a real pain. Even counting them at home wasn't easy because the pills were so small, so we'd get a white paper plate and pour them out and count on it (the pills were colored so it made it easier to have a white background). I do keep all medicines in my lockbox that is bolted to a wall inside a closet and that makes my doc very happy He really worries that someone will steal a bottle and OD so he has little flyers in his office about buying lock boxes and where to get them.

I just don't think I could count all my medicines right in front of them because they would feel like it's a slap in the face to them and they wouldn't be as nice and always have my medicines (in my mind anyway). I used to go to at least 2 pharmacies every month trying to get my medicines filled and the one I go to now always has my medicines. The first 2 months they didn't and from then on they always had them so I know they are ordering them for me since all the other drug stores would say they didn't carry certain items and I would have to give them the script and wait a day for them to order and get them in stock.

I have no complaints in the last 2 years about my pharmacy. I'll never use a Walgreens again though; no matter how many cute commercials they put on my tv.