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What follows is an accurate transcription of the events that have occurred since I received my prescription from Dr. Santana on April 9, 2009:
Facts: I received my prescription from Dr. Santana on April 9, 2009.I took my prescription to the pharmacy authorized via signed documents at Samaritan Behavioral Health (SBH): Rite Aid, 842 State St., Watertown, NY 13601. Prescription #: [protected] Qty: 45 Dosage: 1.5 tablets per day of 8 mg Tablets. I promptly put the prescription container in my pocket to safeguard it against potential theft or loss.When I went to take my dose on Friday, April 10, I noticed that it did not look like 45 tablets, so I counted them, and there were only 29 tablets. I promptly reported this to Joe, the Pharmacy Manager at 4:06 pm, Friday April 10, and requested that he do an inventory check. He asked me to call back in 30 minutes. I called back at 4:52 pm, at which time he told me that he still had not completed the inventory. He said he “forgot about it” but would do it then if I remained on the line. I remained on the line, and he told me the following:
“I am supposed to have 247 tablets on hand myself, and I am short. I only
have 200 tablets, so I am sorry there is nothing I can do it about it.
I asked the girl who did the prescription if she counted them twice
and she told me ‘yes.’ However, if you want to have your Program
Director call I will explain the situation to him or her.”
At this point I told Joe that I thought it was strange that he would be missing so many of such a tightly regulated narcotic, and suggested that he might want to do an audit or some other procedure to ensure that there was not any employee theft going on. I also asked them if he counted them himself, as the lead pharmacist, and he told me “no.” I suggested that, in the future, with controlled substances, maybe two sets of eyes should be on such prescriptions. He dismissed both notions and hung up with me at 4:59 pm, offering me no other recourse save talking to my Program Director.
Further Documentation
On Saturday, April 11, I placed a call to my primary counselor, Mike, at SBH. I left a message detailing what had happened.
Additionally, on Monday April 13, I spoke with both Teddy xxxxxxxxxx and Canice xxxxxx regarding the situation and what to do about it, who told me whom I should talk to.
Canice gave me two numbers to follow up with, and told me to make an appointment with Dr. xxxxxxx for the day I will run out of medication, should this not get rectified by the pharmacy. I tried to do that on Wednesday, April 15, but was told by the SBH receptionist “that’s not how we do things here.”
I began to take things in my own hands, since if I run out of this medicine, it becomes a life or death situation for me, as my cardiologist has told me that if I relapse, there is no intervention that would be able to save my heart from total failure this time. As such, I have placed over 10 to various agencies and/or Rite Aid resources, with no recourse of action. All of my calls have not been returned by District Managers, nor was my complaint on the Rite Aid Website Contact Us Form ever addressed. I'll take it all the way to the Office of Professional Misconduct if I have to. The problem is, if they don't correct this, I can't afford to pay the out-of-pocket expense ($214) for the 16 missing pills...
Well, guess what? No lawyer needed. All the extra work I did contacting the District Manager, who didn't return my calls last week b/c he was on vacation, paid off. They are offering me my 16 pills at no charge, and are doing a complete inventory of their controlled substances to check for any discrepancies, and reporting any findings to the Bureau of Narcotics. I'm satisfied, and will remain loyal to Rite Aid, BUT I will check them at the counter from now on.
To all those who questioned me, I don't really care what you think. Does it make YOU feel better to make disparaging comments about addicts who are trying to make their lives better by not abusing meds anymore (that's what Suboxone is for)? As for there being no Bureau of Narcotics, that seems correct, but I was only reporting what I was told to do- I had no idea- I only knew that I was short that amount of pills.
Oh yeah...to the pharmacists and techs...you just might want to look at the stats regarding how many times per year you all are responsible for giving the wrong meds to people.
The complaint has been investigated and resolved to the customer’s satisfaction.
Roger- get a lawyer NOW! I too have dealt with these types of situations in pharmacies. And every pharmacy will assume that you are probably lying, and they will never do anything to help you recieve your proper prescription amount. There are some of us as patients who actually are honest and don't abuse our meds. Yet when pills come up short and it happens to affect our script, we cannot have our legitimate pills while someone in the pharmacy obviously stole them. I'm sorry this is happening to you...
07/07/09
A SIMILAR THING HAPPENED TO ME AT A RITE AID PHARMACY IN ROSEBURG, OREGON. ON JUNE 19TH 2009 I PICKED UP MY PRESCRIPTION OF VICODIN WHICH SHOULD HAVE CONTAINED 45 PILLS. THE CONTAINER WAS PUT INTO A BAG CONTAINING SEVERAL OTHER SMALL PURCHASES. WHEN I GOT HOME AND TOOK THE CONTAINER I IMMEDIATELY REALIZED IT FELT "LIGHT". THIS WAS A REFILL THAT I HAVE USED MANY TIMES BEFORE. IN FACT THE CONTAINER HELD ONLY 15 PILLS. I IMMEDIATELY PHONED THE PHARMACY AND REPORTED THAT I WAS SHORT TWO-THIRDS OF MY PRESCRIPTION!
THE PHARMACIST SAID SHE DID NOT FILL THIS PRESCRIPTION AND THE PHARMACIST THAT DID HAD LEFT FOR THE DAY. THIS WAS ABOUT 8 PM.TOLD ME I NEEDED TO BRING THE BOTTLE BACK IN THE MORNING TO SEE JUST WHICH PHARMACIST DID FILL THE PRESCRIPTION. THE MORE I THOUGHT ABOUT THE INCIDENT THE MORE INSECURE I BEGAN TO FEEL. NOW I WAS THE ONE WHO HAD PROVE MY CASE. I CALLED THE STORE BACK AND ASKED FOR THE STORE MANAGER. I WAS TOLD THE MANAGER WAS GONE BUT I COULD SPEAK WITH THE SUPERVISOR. I DID AND EXPLAINED WHAT HAPPENED. AT THIS POINT I WAS RECONNECTED WITH THE PHARMACIST THAT I HAD ALREADY SPOKEN WITH. SHE TOLD ME THAT TOMORROW "A DECISION" WOULD BE MADE.
THE FOLLOWING TWO DAYS I WAS SCHEDULED FOR DAY SHIFTS BEGINNING AT 0645 AM UNTIL 0730 PM. I HAD TO TAKE OFF WORK AND RETURN TO THE PHARMACY. THERE WAS A DIFFERENT PHARMACIST WHO LISTENED TO MY STORY AND TOLD ME SHE DIDN'T HAVE THE AUTHORITY TO "JUST GIVE 30 MORE " PILLS. SHE SAID THAT HER BOSS WAS OFF THAT DAY AND ON A BIKE RIDE AND SHE COULD NOT REACH HIM BY PHONE, BUT SHE WOULD KEEP TRYING.
I TOLD HER THAT THIS WAS A PROBLEM BECAUSE I WAS PLANNING TO DRIVE OUT OF STATE AND NEEDED MY MEDS.
I TOLD HER THAT BY NOW THEY SHOULD SEE THAT THEIR VICODIN COUNT WAS 30 OVER. SHE LAUGHED AND SAID THAT VICODIN WAS NOT SOMETHING THAT THEY KEPT AN ACCURATE COUNT OF BECAUSE IT IS NOT A SCHEDULE 2 MED. I TOLD HER THAT I NEEDED MY MEDS AND THAT I WAS 30 SHORT OUT OF 45. SHE SAID SHE WOULDN'T LET ME GO ON A TRIP AND BE IN PAIN. SHE WOULD SEE I WAS GIVEN SOME BEFORE LEAVING. I RESTATED THAT I WAS 30 SHORT AND WANTED MY PILLS. THE NEXT DAY WAS SUNDAY, SHE SAID SHE WOULD PHONE ME AT MY WORK NUMBER WITH AN UPDATE. THE FOLLOWING DAY SHE DIDN'T CALL, I PHONED HER LATER IN THE AFTERNOON. SHE HADN'T HEARD FROM HER BOSS YET. I TOLD HER THAT IF THE PROBLEM WASN'T SOLVED MY THE END OF THE DAY I WOULD MAKE A POLICE REPORT AND FIND A WAY TO CONTACT THE OREGON PHARMACY BOARD. RIGHT BEFORE CLOSING TIME SHE SAID THAT I COULD UP MY MEDS . THE STORE CLOSED BEFORE MY SHIFT ENDED. I DID PICK THEM UP IN THE AM. I COUNTED THEM TO BE SURE. THIS SHOULD NEVER HAPPEN TO ANY ONE! KAMc RN.
Wow, the capabilities of the addict ... once again proven.
~Patricia
Bureau of Narcotics- there is no such thing. Unless you meant the DEA (Drug Enforcement Agency) which also deals with narcotics.
I work as a pharmacy technician and it always seems that the people who get controlled substances/narcotics always say that they were shorted. How convenient for them! It is a story that I have heard over and over again. Most of the time it is a lie. I am not saying that there is a chance that some people may have been shorted some pills but not all of those that complain about it.
You just want more narcotics and make up lies.
By the way, for all the addicts out there.. your stories about how your pills fell down the toilet, fell in the sink, left them on the bus, someone stole them, left them in a cab, somehow dropped out of your bag, you need an early refill due to going out of town.. etc etc
YOUR STORY IS NOT ORIGINAL, WE HAVE HEARD THEM ALL BEFORE, NUMEROUS TIMES! Addicts always seem to have the same story.
Very rarely do people who take non-narcotic meds every lose them... it seems to be the people who take the narcotics etc.
We have to nod and listen to you when you tell your stories... but we don't believe you. So next time, don't waste your breath.
Federal and state law prohibits a narcotic being replaced due to a lost bottle etc.. and you can not get it refilled early, you are only allowed once and it limits the number of days early.
Get off the stupid narcotics and live a normal life.
How nice it would be to not be in constant pain, even with narcotic pain medication. Walk a mile in a chronic pain patients shoes without any pain medication or relief and then talk to us about "have a normal life". My life is far from normal since my spiral spine started having problems and back surgery made it worse. Now there are a few spots they can't operate on for fear of paralyzing me. Then I get diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis and that's a whole other story of pain. I need pain medications to even get out of bed, to be able to go to bed, to be able to go to the store, to get to the DR, to eat, to shower. I pray that you never have to go through anything so terrible. You shouldn't judge what you know nothing about
It is ALSO common knowledge that pharmacy technicians and workers DO SELL them and pocket them and that pharmacist DO make mistakes. How self righteous for you to throw the blame on someone else. One more than one occassion I have had non-narcotic medicine for my blood pressure incorrectly filled with wrong medication by mistake, given a substitute that was not really a substitute and not told and SHORTED the amount of pills I was prescribed. I AM NOT an addict I never take anything but my blood pressure medicine not even aspirin unless I have had surgery and my doctor knows whatever will not interfere with my bp medicine. I do not trust pharmacist at all. They have these GOD complexes. The doctor prescribes you something and then THEY decide to diagnosis or change sometimes your doctors prescription-CVS and Wahlgreen's are famously notorious for this.They killed a kid in Knoxville TN doing exactly that so don't act like you all are victims makes me sick! If you want to make the decisions be a doctor and not a pharmacist go back to school! I personally am tired of their jealousy and envy toward doctors and their self righteous attitudes toward the patients. DO SOMETHING else but stop sticking it to everyone else because you are so miserable. If a doctor prescribes a medicine fill the prescription exactly like they said, don't second guess or argue about it YOU ARE NOT THE DOCTOR DO YOUR JOB! or go back to school and get your MD personally I am tired of having to pay for miscounted pills, listening to your complaining and justifying why I need a narcotic after I have had major hemmoroid surgery hours earlier to some wanna be doctor at a pharmacy with a chip on his shoulder.
drugmonkeyrph@gmail.com This is David Stanley Monroe a pharmacist with Rite-Aid. Email him your complaint as he has corporate's ear.
Thank god someone tells it like it is. Not everyone is an addict you ingrades, although having had bad pain in my past (and never being given anything stronger than vicodin when it was never enough) and the pharmacists STILL had a mind to screw me on so many occassions. You don't know what it's like to be in pain and know that some tool pharmacist has the power to deny you just because they don't understand the reasons. Do you honestly think you have a RIGHT vs a MD? I agree with John 100 % go back to med school you HACKS. I also have friends who take benzos or suboxone on a regular basis (as prescribed, they'd be dead without it) and if these people miss their meds whether you agree with it or not... its DANGEROUS... and yet I've still watched you losers put people in to the most stressful places IMAGINEABLE. Benzo withdrawal can cause seizures and death and suboxone has deadly side effects too even after missing it for just a few days. You really think you hacks have a right? You have the same mentality of somebody who would put someone to the electric chair when they could be wrong; go piss up a rope [censored]bags.
I once had to deal with RITE AID for three days OVER A SYNTHROID PERSCRIPTION. ***SYNTHROID***. I have low thyroid and I feel crappy when I don't take it.. this is small compared to what these people have dealt with. Half the people you screw with are not addicts. Last fun fact for that obvious self righteous pharmacist - A disturbing amount of pharmacists are abusers.
Oh and by the way MOST PEOPLE don't take more than 8 vics a day because they don't want to destroy their liver and those that do, many of them are UNDER-prescribed their meds and they are suffering in chronic pain and all they are given is tylenol ridden poison, so it's a doctor problem too and you just compound it further idiots. I am blatantly aware this is an old post. I hope that my words will live on for people on the internet to read for the next 50 years.
Go to hell any pharmacist who assumes, or abuses, or acts like they're anything but a pill dispensary. Anybody can find out every piece of information you know by using the [censor]ing internet without even going to school and any intelligent person will. You're not a chemist either loser. You're just a BIG GLORIFIED PEZ DISPENSER. Now give me my meds and STFU. I've watched too many friends and family suffer because of your arrogance and negligence.
I do know many pharmacists who were really nice, I used to work in a pharmacy, Fays drugs when I was a teenager. I never remember once turning someone away because they were too early. We always gave them their medicines, that is what we were paid to do. I don't know if laws are getting sticter. It seems to me that many pharmacists have a high and mighty picture of themselves now. Terrible, if a doc prescribes a med, give it to the people, if you miscount, live up to it, or just live in the denial that you yourself might be abusing other peoples drugs, and blaming them.
You all have to understand what pharmacists and pharm techs face every single day. We are NOT saying that everyone who takes a narcotic/controlled substance is an addict. We are saying that we have heard the same stories over and over from people who most likely are the addicts. People with chronic pain do deserve to have pain relief and by all means should be able to take pain pills.
However, what the doctor does not explain enough is how highly addicting most controlled substances are. You may not intend to become addicted to them, it just happens. Your body will go through withdraw symptoms if you try to stop the meds or take less of them. Some of the pain pills can cause heart problems, liver problems, kidney problems etc after medium to long term use. Some of these pills when they first came out, were not intended for long term use. They were for short term use. Now that people have been on them for a long time, the damage to their bodies is now showing up. Just because a doctor prescribes a medication, it does not mean it is 100% safe. The FDA also has screwed up quite a bit after allowing a med to come on the market, only to have to take it off the market less than 3 years later due to major side effects and sometimes death.
You need to be proactive with your health and the medications that you take. Be careful and read up on meds before you take them or decide to take them for long term use. There are some relatively safe meds out there that help people but some doctors will not prescribe them due to that some doctors always want to only prescribe the "newest meds" etc. Also, it can be that the doctor does not get a "kickback" from the particular pharmaceutical company, so the doctor may not prescribe that med.
Yes its sad that some of the medical and pharmaceutical industry is run on greed and "do this for me and I will do this for you" attitudes. Like I stated above, do your own research before you take meds and keep updates on the ones that you take.
I apologize for my previous comments from last year, I was having a horrible week at work. I took it out on this board and I am sorry.
Not everyone on narcotics is an addict or sells them, but you have to understand where pharmacy staff is coming from...
we do see addicts and frauds about a hundred times a week and after awhile of seeing that, you start to become jaded.
Its easier said than done to say "don't assume" because it is human nature. Your perception of others is most likely built on how the majority of those particular people behave/act. So, for example if you saw 3, 000 elephants in your life and 2, 500 of them were mean, then you would have a built in prejudice that most elephants are mean. (This was just an example, a scenario to help better explain my points). I am not saying that humans are elephants or vice versa.
Every single person in the world assumes something every single day. Its human nature.
The best way to handle it is to talk about it in a civil manner and come to a compromise...then move on.
Wishing everyone a wonderful Christmas with all sincerity!
im just now going through the same thing with rite aid got my rx called in by my doc like i do every month on 2/4/11 got home put them in my dispencer and they were two short .this rx is for hydrocodone 10/660 . i called back 20 minutes later ahd the pharmicst says he checked his inventory and he had what he was supposed to have . someone there for sure stole them from me and thats two day i have to go through pain they will do nothing . they said they could call my doctor on monday and have him authorise my other two meds this is unaccepable and makes me look bad . i have never had to get my meds early due to me using to many . rite aid jus got me. am i supposed to dump them out and count them out rite there in the pharmicy? this is the second time in three months they have been short . i take one at bedtime and when there is not enough to go through the month is when i noticed it the first time . this is just to bad because there is really nothing i can do about it . john j. kill devil hills nc
Hi. I agree that a lot of pharmacists have an inflated attitude like
I once had a snooty pharmacist at a chain store refuse to fill a prescription for Viagra, on the grounds that "that isn't for women." Like off-label prescribing was against the law. I told her to call my doctor but all she did was (very rudely) inform my doctor that (according to her) it was not a proper prescription and that she shouldn't be prescribing this medication to women. She refused to give me back the script so I could take it to a pharmacist who wasn't going to try to override my doctor's perfectly legitimate script. I stopped going to that pharmacy after that.
If you've been going to one of those big chain pharmacies (RiteAid, WalMart, etc.) and have had bad experiences, I recommend checking out an independent local "mom-and-pop" pharmacy. That is what I did. A lot of the big chains treat pharmacists like overeducated sales clerks. I think they probably feel undervalued, and maybe they act pompous and officious to compensate. I'm not trying to make excuses for them, just saying I think it could be a symptom of a bigger problem. At local pharmacies you see the same pharmacist every time you go there. That makes a big difference if you're on chronic meds. They get to know you, see that you are trustworthy so that if something does happen they're more likely to believe you. Also they probably have better work conditions in general and don't have to deal with as much crap as the chain pharmacists so they're liable to be in a better mood. I've never had a pharmacist at a local pharmacy (I went to one when I lived in another town too) be rude or make a mistake filling a prescription. As an example: I take a medication that pharmacies don't usually stock, so they have to special order it. The chain pharmacy I used to go to always made me call them up every month several days before I needed the refill, and a number of times when I went to pick it up a couple days later, it turned out they had not ordered it. When I switched to the local pharmacy they were happy to keep it on hand for me so I didn't have to worry about calling ahead all the time. Also, contrary to what you might expect, my experience has been that local pharmacies are *not* more expensive than chains.
Anyhow, that's my experience. I hope it helps someone.
(oops forgot to delete the bit at the top. sorry!)
I love the judgmental pharmacists who clearly should not be working in the medical field. Sick people do not deserve your judgment no matter what. Oh and you who have heard it all from the addicts, i take narcotics for a brain aneurysm and thank goodness the one time i was shortened by one of you know it all pharmacists, luckily they put 90 pills in a 30 pill bottle and the smart intelligent pharmacist even circled the 90 - had she not put in the smaller bottle i am sure she would have spoke to me the same way you are, instead she frowned, shot me the look of death and gave me another 60 pills! Oh and no apology LOVE the kind pharmacists, don't you? I am very happy i am nothing like the meanies who work behind the counters, have your opinions just keep them to yourself and do it with a smile or find another job! By the way, if you feel you have been wronged, file complaints every time, you may be pleasantly suprised with how wrong your pharmacist actually is. Good luck to you all, i know it's not fun when life changes from healthy to pain and judgment, it's tough!
Who do you ask fine complaints with?
How do you ALL FILE complaints? Where do you go for the best results and resolution?
OOPS 30 pills in a 30 pill small bottle (should have been 90, shorted me 60 and circled 90)
Hi, I have recently moved cross country from MA to OR. I have run into this problem twice at the Rite Aid. Last month it was 20 morphines missing in each bottle. I actually thought someone broke into my house.
So I just picked up a new prescription, same pharmacy. Same med amount. When I got home, I counted the.
5 short exactly in each bottle. NO SIGNATURE ON THE BOTTLE LIKE THEY ARE SUPPOSE TO.
I called the pharmacy right away. They said that 3 people counted them. There were only 2 people working at the time.]
Needles to say, I don
t know what to do. I take this medication for a reason. I HAVE NEVER been short, EVER!l what do I do, who do I call when you are not believed. I really love this pharmacy and they have been wonderful to me. But I AM NOT A LIAR! All I asked was that if they could count what they have and if they are over, then simple human error. Just like when you give money to a cashier and you get the wrong change, they re count the draw. Can anyone tell me what to do. The pharmacy basically called me a liar.