<p>Have any of you gone to the pharmacy and ended up being handed someone else’s Rx? It happened to me. I ended up getting home and looking at a paper stapled onto the bag to see how many renewals my doctor ordered. I looked closer because I did not have the same number of renewals that I had in the past and I discovered that I have another patient’s medication! Scary stuff!</p>
<p>I haven’t received the wrong prescription, but I’ve paid for a 90 day supply and received 30. Glad the pills didn’t have street value, so they believed me. Also had my name put on the label of another family member’s prescription, so there was confusion that could have been serious.</p>
<p>I’ve been given the wrong dosage. Rx was for 100 mg pills, 10 mg were dispensed. Fortunately it was a refill, so I noticed immediately.</p>
<p>Some pharmacies make lots of mistakes. One mistake doesn’t mean you need to go elsewhere. More than one mistake, I would switch to a new place.</p>
<p>I hope you spoke to the manager when you went back…</p>
<p>Aren’t there supposed to be checks and balances?? I know Medco has several of them.</p>
<p>That’s really amazing, given how cautious pharmacies are now about HIPAA violations. I know at my local CVS, I wanted to see if one of H’s prescriptions were ready, and I asked “is his (name of the drug) ready”? And they wouldn’t tell me the name of the drug, citing privacy rules.</p>
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<p>Or not so much. We have a distinctive last name, so our CVS knows that any rx with the Pie name belongs to a member of our family. When we go in for one person’s rx and another has one waiting, they always say, “Do you want to pick up your [son’s/wife’s/daughter’s], too?” </p>
<p>I hate to turn them in, because it is convenient, but that so violates HIPAA. I’ve heard about women who don’t want to get pregnant hiding their birth control pills from their H; this pharmacy would say “H, do you want to pick up your wife’s prescription?” Could have a bad result.</p>
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<p>If I were that woman, I’d go to a pharmacy two towns over to get my BC pills.</p>
<p>The pharmacy sent my daughter’s prescription home with another customer. The tech had pulled the completed rx out of the bin and then discovered the other one wasn’t ready. He told me to come back in a few minutes…but didn’t put the first one back in the bin. It is easy to see what happened.</p>
<p>Or the teenager who picks up dad’s Viagra?</p>
<p>Speaking from experience?</p>
<p>I was surprised to learn many scripts are not filled in-house by your local pharmacist. At Walgreen’s at least most scripts are transmitted to a central area and then shipped back to the store. Unless it needs to be picked up immediately or is an unusual medication, it is filled elsewhere.</p>
<p>HIPAA, as currently enforced, does not prevent family members from picking up each other’s prescriptions (although it may be necessary to have some sort of permission on file).</p>
<p>A few years ago, I was housebound for almost three months after badly breaking my leg. My husband had no difficulty picking up my prescriptions. I have also picked up prescriptions for various family members who were having outpatient surgery, while they were still at the surgical facility, to avoid having to stop at the pharmacy while bringing them home. Again, no problem.</p>
<p>Well, my script was filled at the store. The way the mistake occured was that the pharmacist asked me for my last name. I gave it to her. As it turned out there was another patient with a similar sounding last name, but the spelling of it was quite different from the spelling of my last name. The pharmacist did not ask me for my address or first name, which the assistants usually double check (they wre not in yet, as I picked up my script before 9 am). </p>
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<p>I only spoke with the pharmacist because I have to deal with this person on an going basis for my meds. She has gone out of her way in being helpful in the past (not all pharamacists would be as helpful). I have other pharmacies that I could use, but this one is most convenient, so I am not making waves. I just started this thread because I do recognize how serious this type of error is and it really stuck with me throughout the day. I think that I feel guilty by not taking it further, but I know that by speaking with the pharmacist she knew exactly what kind of mistake she made. FWIW, she was very apologetic.</p>
<p>I had trouble a few months ago with a new pharmacy tech when I was trying to pick up my cat’s prozac (generic). The cat’s last name was messed up and it was getting difficult to prove I was the “parent”. I finally said, “Look, it’s for a CAT!”</p>
<p>MOWC, now that was too funny! LOL!</p>
<p>Unfortunately it happens more often than not. I have a close friend whose name is similar (only difference is one double letter in his last name). The boys have been in classes together and teachers have mixed things up. In high school, my son got mailed the other one’s report card after last marking period!! And the school got snippy when he told them about it… Over the last ten years, at multiple pharmacies, we have had about 5 mixups where they got our meds or we got theirs…and there have not been that many prescriptions filled, so we’re talking about a 20% error rate. It happens when we go to vote and even the mail gets misdelivered… We live at #22 on one street and they are at #2 on a neighboring street…We joke about it but I don’t really need to know what meds his wife is taking and vice versa…</p>
<p>^^ We also have experienced some of the same issues. I have gotten other people’s mail many times. We have also gotten a emailed progress report out of the blue from a teacher about someone else’s child! She just used the wrong parent’s email address! </p>
<p>The RX mishap was a first for us!</p>
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<p>Seems like it should be okay if the family member asks for it, as in “I need to pick up my D’s BC pills”, rather than the pharmacy employee offering “Do you want to pick up your D’s BC pills?”</p>