Off the Cuff / My Other Journal

Pharmacy Aggravation

I don’t know why the people in our local pharmacy can’t pull their act together. Due to their ineptitude, I have gotten into the habit of opening up the prescription and counting the pills right there in front of their eyes; a practice that makes them uneasy but keeps them on their toes.

There is a reason for my behavior. It started several years ago, when I first caught on to them by finding pills of different sizes and shapes inside the pillbox after I opened them at home. When I took it back, the pharmacist –practically- accused me of fraud, as if I were running a backdoor pharmacy from my own home and gypped him of his operating costs or his supply; nevertheless, he did replace the pills with the right ones… eventually.

Then, there were many other times when I got pills of wrong count, never over the limit, mind you, but always under. I got 30 pills instead of 90, 15 instead if 30, and so on and so forth.

At one point this same pharmacy gave the wrong pills to a cancer patient causing his condition to worsen. There was a lawsuit, and after that, they -at least- do not accuse the customer and do the exchange wearing a better attitude mask.

I just came back again, this afternoon, from exchanging another wrong prescription. There is a pill I take once a week and the prescription for it is for three months supply, which makes it 12 pills. This morning, my husband picked up the pills without checking the contents of the bag. Lo and behold… I had 4 pills.

This pharmacist was new: a younger one and more polite than the others. If he weren’t, I would have written the pharmacy chain’s name here and would have called the better business bureau. This pharmacist said the reason for their goof-up was because this prescription is supplied in counts of four. This made me laugh because I have been using the same pills –refills and all- for more than six years, and we use this pharmacy non-stop because they are the only ones open seven days a week 24 hours a day.

I understand human error, but this much of it is unbelievable. I wish close to my home other pharmacies with the same hours would open.