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CVS Prescription Errors

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It's estimated there are as many as 7,000 deaths annually in the United States from incorrect prescriptions and pharmacy regulators say the problem is getting worse as the number of prescriptions increases and the number of pharmacists decreases.

But surely a big company like CVS has a way to reduce the number of errors to nearly zero? We'd like to think so but the accounts we hear aren't very encouraging. In addition to the general mishaps below, we have a growing collection of consumer complaints about potentially serious errors including wrong counts, wrong dosage, the wrong drug and mistaken identity. The service pharmacy patients and their caregivers receive also leaves a lot to be desired.

Marykay of West Springfield, MA March 19, 2010

My 93 year old mother was prescribed morphine. CVS filled the RX and gave us 5x the dosage. I happened to show the bottle to a visiting nurse who saw the discrepancy. She immediately called the pharmacy and they admitted their mistake. I went in and spoke with the pharmacy supervisor hoping to get an assurance that this would never happen to anybody ever again. This did not happen. It was an issue about he pharmacist being without assistant on a Saturday. I think they need Saturday help or they should not fill RX"s on the weekends.

Gracie of san Jose, CA March 6, 2010

My 83 year old mom was prescribed Levothyroxine 24 mcg the pharmacy filled the prescription for 125 mcg. My mom has a heart condition and is taking warfarin the dose of this drug exceeded the dose 5 times. this is not the first incident. If I was not double checking her medications this could have been detrimental.

Vanessa of Lexington, SC March 4, 2010

My 4 year old son had been hospitalized due to his asthma and upon being released from the hospital the Dr. prescribed singulair 4mg chewables to him. It was filled on 2/6/2010. About a week into taking the medicine he started crying with his stomach hurting. About 4 days later he started vomiting. We thought it was a stomach virus that had been going around. We stopped giving the medicine for a few days and he got better, so after about 4 days we started back giving it to him again. The first night we give it to him he went to sleep and woke up crying of his stomach hurting about an hour after taking the medicine. He then started vomiting.

The next night I give him the medicine and when he had taken it I looked at the bottle and under the pharmacy label which said 4mg I saw the manufacturer's label had 10mg. He had been getting over double the dose he should have been getting. I called the pharmacy and they said that they would refund us our out of pocket amount for the prescription and refill 2 months for free. My husband said that 36.74 is not worth my sons life.

I just hope this medicine doesn't have any underlying effects on him. I hope this hasn't affected any of his organs or anything like a lot of medicines can do with taking double the dose he was prescribed. In fact the pharmacy said that the pills weren't even chewable tablets which he was supposed to have. I feel terrible about him taking it, but he had never taken it before so I didn't think anything of this being wrong. I will always check behind the pharmacy now. All pharmacies.... This is very scary to think my child has taken half a bottle of double strength medicine.

Florence of Monterey Park, CA March 1, 2010

On 2/27/10 I ordered a 90-day supply of Cozaar and received one bottle of 30. CVS shorted me 60 pills. Previously in 2009 I ordered Levoxyl and was shorted 30 pills. After thatI switched to a mail order drug plan, but I had to change drug plans because my plan no longer was available in 2010. I went back to CVS in 2010 to order my meds. I am looking into finding another more reliable pharmacy.

Nicole of Harrisburg, NC February 26, 2010

Pharmacy could not dispense needed medication for my child because they erroneously put wrong MD name as prescriber. Insurance denied covering the medication because they were trying to figure out why an "orthopedic surgeon" would be ordering allergy medicine. Pharmacy informed me that they had sent 2 request via fax to the MD asking him to call the insurance company. Inadvertingly, my child's PHI was sent via fax to a MD that I do not have any relationship with and who knows where it has gone from there. The pharmacy continues to say it was a typographical error, (put an A for Arrington instead of an E for Errington, but that does not explain, how, why, and who put in the script under the wrong MD. Not only was the last name wrong,but the first name as well.

beverly of Burleson, TX February 22, 2010

Been with this CVS since it was Eckreds. Listed allergies with Eckreds as Sulfa & bandaids adhesive. Husband AR to sulfa--almost died in early 2000's. CVS states no profile and no update of profile. Know for fact was there cause I provided the information after his severe rxn.

Kathy of Haverhill, MA February 11, 2010

On 2/9/10 I picked up a prescription for Pataday eye drops from CVS Pharmacy in Haverhill. When I arrived home I found a .5 ml bottle of Pataday in the package, and this being the first experience with this product I thought everything was fine, albeit very small and expensive. On 2/11 I was online with my health care provider, Cigna, when I noticed the prescription was for a 2.5 ml bottle and that is what CVS charged them and myself for. I immediately called CVS to alert them that they had sold me the wrong dosage. They adamantly denied that they had done so and claimed they do not sell the .5 ml bottle and I was mistaken even though I have the bottle to prove it. They told me I would have to go back to the store with the box the bottle was in so they could look into it. The bottle was already disposed of on the 10th. CVS refuses to do anything about correcting their mistake even though I have the bottle they sold me.

Anthony of Albany, GA February 10, 2010

I was getting e-mail notifications from cvs for a long time. I never felt like I was really getting any privelages from this so the other day I unsubscribed. Now they will not fill my prescription for my blood pressure medicine. They said they deleted it and I had 6 more months of medicine left on my refills. They sent me out the door without my meds and the woman had the medicine that helps to keep me alive right there in her hand and wouldn't give it to me.

I am having headaches and have eleveted blood pressure even more so because I am now worried that I may have a stroke. High blood pressure runs in my family. It killed my grandmother at a young age and I am very concerned about this. These people were very rude and showed no concern for me or my health. I am livid.

What right do they have to not fill a legal prescription from a doctor? I went to a cvs out of my area a few weeks ago before I ran out and they told me they didn't have the same mg. dose and could I come back in a day or two. That was before I unsubscribed. I cannot believe this is happening.

Dorothy of Lancaster, TX February 5, 2010

On 02/04/2010, I dropped off a prescription bottle for a re-fill (#6)of the drug Dexamethasone 4 MG Tablet ROX. I went back the next day to pick the prescription up. The drug has to be taken 2 day before and 1 day after my Chemo treatment which was scheduled on Monday. I was at the drive-thru but as I was driving off I noticed that the pills were yellow in color and the bottle was almost full. My prescription was a little blue/green pill of no more than 14 pills. When I looked at the lable, I noticed that my name was on the lable but the drug was Paxil; I have never taken Paxil in my life.

I would have overlooked the error of giving me the wrong drug (this time)but what really upset me was the fact that when I returned to the store and went inside, this Pharmacist, James announced out loud in a public area full of customers, my condition; asking me personal questions with no concern of my privacy.

Elizabeth of Bedford, TX January 27, 2010

I called in a refill and gave the lady on the phone the fax number for the refill request because it had changed, in addition to the contact number of the perscribing physician. I called an hour later and they said the fax number was incorrect and therefore couldn't refill the perscription. I spoke with the same lady, Lynn, and told her that I gave the two correct numbers to her over an hour ago. She was rude and said I could report it to the manager tomorrow and I told her that I was sick and needed the perscription now and to send the refill request in. She hung up on me.

My husband graciously called back where the lady Lynn, refused to give us her manager's name and used abusive and foul language with my husband and telling him that it must have been a new guy that was in training. I called my physician immediately after I got off the phone with her, he said that he had no requests and then while we were on the phone he said the refill request came thru. My physician got the pharmacy number from me and said he was going to call. This is not the first time I have experienced abuse and neglect from this same store and same lady, she has not been made accountable and apparantly the manager of the establishment will not do anything about the incompetant employee. I have had it with this company. I hope that people's complaints are not only heard but something can be done about it. Thank you for the opportunity

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