BEWARE OF WALGREENS PHARMACY

I usually try to post something uplifting on this blog. However I think it is so important to watch for medication errors at Walgreens Pharmacy or at any pharmacy for that matter.

Please check all prescription drugs to make certain what you are taking is what your doctor ordered for you. Here is today's post:

The doctor had ordered some medications for my wife, so I went to the pharmacy to pick them up. It’s a well known national chain.





When I got home my wife was looking at her medications. Before she became disabled, she was a Registered Nurse. One of the medications was for seizures and the doc had ordered 180 tablets.



My wife tells me that most of the pills are like the ones she had been taking as they were elliptical and had the name of the manufacturer printed on them. But mixed in were some round tablets with different markings. And she asks me if she thinks they may have come from different manufacturers?


I called the pharmacy and described the differences in the pills. The round ones had an “A” with “MO” beneath it. The pharmacist said the round ones were 50 mg Toprol XL. Now I take Toprol XL and I know that it is a beta-blocker which slows down the heartbeat and is used to regulate blood pressure.


The pharmacist said that she was sorry and nonchalantly told me to bring the medication back and she would remove the incorrect pills and refund my money. Like this happens everyday!

I let the pharmacist know that if she looked at my wife’s records she would find out that she takes another medication for her blood pressure. I asked her would not the combination result in hypotension and perhaps worse. The pharmacist stated that they were very busy so the actual pharmacist only opens the bottle and glances to see if the medication looks correct.

I sent an email to the company as well as wrote to the corporate office and cc’d my doctor.

When I took the drugs back I learned that at this chain of stores the drugs are automatically dispensed by a machine that is supposed to count each pill as it puts it into the bottle. The pharmacist that I talked to this evening said their general manager called them this morning and had them take the machine apart to determine what had gone wrong.

The moral of the story is if you folks are purchasing prescription drugs open the bottle and count them. They should have a description of the pill on the label. Make sure you are receiving what your doctor ordered and the quantity that was ordered. And if it is pill or capsule form, then count it.



I counted the tablets twice before I took them back. There were 181 of the correct pills and 6 of the blood pressure medications. So the stupid machine could not even count them correctly!
This Warning Is Only My Oppinion!