Aggravated with Pharmacies

We live in a small town and even though I take the same thing every month, the pharmacy never has it in stock. So I went to the big name W pharmacy, handed them my scripts and asked if they could fill them. They could fill two of them. I asked how long it would take and they said 20 minutes. Great.

45 minutes later they were done. Now my back is spasming as I had just driven up to my Dr.

So I go to the big name C pharmacy. Yes, they have enough to fill the remaining script. Said it would be 15 min. And it was....for the wrong fing script. I told the pharmacist, no, I wanted the script filled that I handed the ditzy little girl 15 minutes ago. The pharmacist found it, exactly where dingbat set it down on top of the prescription bags. This time it only took 5 minutes.

Now, my head is going too. Been a long day made much longer by incompetence. Does anyone blame me for counting and checking my meds every time I go to the pharamacy?

My Dr. Is very understanding. According to the pain contract I'm not supposed to use two pharmacies...but my little town doesn't give me a choice as I can't do partial fills on some of my meds.

I'm surprised more folks aren't killed by pharmaceutical mistakes.

They are.

Wow, I know how frustrating that can be. I have also had issues with the pharmacies...but none so bad as with my mother. She is 85 and lives with us part of the time. She takes many pills for high bloodpressure and various other medications. So many that I have to sit down and fill them each week in her days of the week pill boxes.

My mother is almost blind. I got home after filling as many perscriptions as I could before the new year so the price would be cheaper. She also was leaving soon to go back to live with my brother. Luckily I looked at everything that I got. Things just did not seem right. Pills that were normally white were now green. Etc.. well to make a long story short the pharmacist put the wrong lable on the bottles. After living with me for several months, my brother would have just grabbed the pills and filled them. Never noticing that they were not right since she had been gone from his house for so long.

I called and talked with the pharmacy. All they said was oh the label is mixed up just fix it. Sorry. As milo said, people die and my mother would have taken the wrong medicine and not known it since she is almost blind. I was appalled!

Check all medications all the time. That is my motto.

Mislabeled bottles? That is a HUGE mistake. It could be life threatening. You are very lucky (or smart) to have noticed.

My problem with the pharmacy has more to do with the insurance company. It takes 5 trips to get 4 medications with all the going back and forth and extra justifying of everything. No wonder our medical costs are so high.

With our headaches none of us has the time or patience for all this.

YES!!!!!!!! I tried to stick with one pharmacy, and i like it there, they are very nice. We have had a couple small mixups, BUT mostly it is the insurance company! The Insurance company can actually dictate my medications!!!!! A few years ago I took a sleeping pill. My Dr prescribed it 1 pill a night. Not as needed, but 1 per night. So after 3 months of taking these pills, I had trouble filling it. At first they said I had taken too many! Nope,I made them calculate my one a day. It was then informed that I could only get 90 pills every 140 days. Great. It would be $240 out of pocket otherwise. I will not pay that much.

I asked the pharmacy why they didn't tell me this before (this was not my usual pharmacy BECAUSE for some reason my FSA card would not work at the normal place)? They said that they are not required to tell me that. So I told them I would not be filling it ever again, and oh thanks for sending me into withdrawl!!! I did have a few days of mild withdrawl, mostly insomnia and a little anxiety from missing those pills!!!!!!

I hate having to navigate pharmacys, insurance companies, and counting pills. I haven't had to count in a loooongg while. Last month though, I was a counting. When I get to that point, I know I either need more in the bottle or the communication between my DR and myself is missing something.

I have signed a few different "pain contracts". I don't understand WHY you can't use more than one pharmacy. Most of those scripts are not even re-fillable. ( AT least in the US). I have to have a new script EVERY time my pills run out for a narcotic. So who care where I get it filled? You know how many I have gone thru by the date of the las time the script was written. Many times I have had to have the meds filled on my way home from the DR. MY drive is over 2 hours, so I have filled it in the strangest places!!! LOL

I often feel it is just another hoop to jump through, just to see how bad you want to get your meds. It just shows that this disease/condition or whatever it is STILL garners no respect. You bet they would bend over backwards to get you heart medication in a timely manner! it is a big P.I.T.A.

I think it is all a ploy to make us give up without what we need (but cheaper for them).
It's amazing how many times my insurance thinks they know better than my doctor(who has actually talked to me and examined me). So they always want me to take things that we already know don't work.

Sadly the only way to win that game is for you and your doctor to keep fighting them. It is a tenacity contest, like we really have time for that. So glad we don't have bureaucrats dictating our medical care in this country HaHa! I laugh every time I hear one.

Sadly, mistakes like that happen every single day at every single pharmacy. It's why it is so important to know exactly what your pills look like and how they are ordered...because the mistakes will happen.

Migrainegirl.....it is ridiculous how the insurance companies end up costing THEMSELVES more money. Take the drug Cymbalta. My neuro and I talked for about 1/2 hour and decided that due to my lower back pain (cymbalta just got FDA approval for lower back pain), my slight depression from constant pain, and my bad reactions to other antidepressants like elavil that Cymblata would-be the way to go.

The insurance company disagreed and wanted $354.

So I went back to the Dr. He said he would appeal, and if that didn't work then he would write me a script for elavil, which I HAD to fill because they check. Six weeks later he would write me a script for something else, which I again, had to fill. Then six weeks later when the others "didn't work" wink wink, they would approve the cymbalta. Absolutely ridiculous. Luckily the insurance paid on appeal and I didn't have to go through with that sham. Not only would it have delayed my treatment three months, I'm a very honest person and things like that bother me. But they had me in a corner. I didn't have $354 a month.

And the Cymbalta has done wonders for my head and my mood.

This is crazy, isn't it.

Somebody need a good whack in the head.
It's a train wreck, with these medication plans, coverages etc., isn't it.
I can't understand it for the life of it.
When did the life become so complicated? and so stupid to boot??

Risa

It became insane when money became more important than actually treating people they way they need to be treated! It is all about making money, not helping people. That is the part that sucks. If the 'company' could maintain a shred of humanity, we would all be much better off, this is just not so.

How very true, Steph.

The saddest part is, the same people who are the part of this system will be needing it as well one day.
Then they'll see.

Risa

Paradox, it is truly ridiculous. They think they are saving money and instead just drive up the costs and the hassles. And it doesn't improve our health any, which means many people are less productive and able to contribute to the economy.

When I was in Thailand, I got ill and had to see a doctor. I walked into a clinic, no waiting, saw a doctor and got my prescriptions filled right there. It took about 30 minutes. It cost $75 for the doctor and $75 for 4 prescriptions. It would have been free if I was a citizen. They have better healthcare outcomes than the U S and better outcomes even than Sweden. And that is considered a 3rd world country.

It is amazing that people in the US have been so brainwashed by insurance companies that we think this extra cost and inefficacy is actually preferable.