Count your pills!!

[asprince]

My regular "mom and pop" pharmacy was closed so I took three prescriptions to a chain pharmacy to be filled. Later that evening when I was giving my wife her medication, I decided to count the pills. Two out of the three prescriptions were SHORT one pill. One was an antibiotic and the other was a class II drug. The correct one only had 5 pills. When I confronted the pharmacy, they were adamant that they correctly counted the pills. They gave me one of the antibiotic pills but refused to replace the class II pill. They said that I should have counted the pills before leaving the store. Bull @!/?

Here is what I think happened.   

1. An employee is stealing pills.
2. The Pharmacy policy is to short prescriptions. Think about it, they fill thousands every month. Think what that policy would do for the bottom line!

Do you count your pills? Are you being shorted?

Steve     

[bassman1977]

#1 is probably more likely than number 2.  Can you imagine the trouble that particular pharmacy would get into if that was something going on chain wide?  I'm curious to know who it is.

[johnnybigfish]

Whoooeee Steve!
 It never occured to me to count my pills!
 I get a mess of them when I get them filled, but some are mailordered. If I counted them at the counter it would take me half an hour
I'll definitley do random counts now after reading your post!
your friend,
john

[asprince]

#1 is probably more likely than number 2.  Can you imagine the trouble that particular pharmacy would get into if that was something going on chain wide?  I'm curious to know who it is.

Some of these pills are very expensive. They don't have to short all prescriptions, just a few of the thousands to impact the bottom line. Who do you report errors to.....the pharmacy. Who are they going to tell..........no one. How many people count their pills..........very few.

How come they were short and not OVER.......negative to the bottom line.

Steve

[Jerrymac]

Probably just an off day at the Pharmacy. Once I had several pills filled. One of my blood pressure bottles was filled with Nexium. My Nexium bottle was also filled with Nexium.

Weird.

I think they filled the Nexium and labeled it wrong and then filled the Nexium 
But they fixed the problem.

[Jerrymac]

BUT....

If you think something else is going on turn them in to the DEA

[KONASDAD]

Its number one, or  a genuine mistake. There is no economic incentive to short a few pills because the computer which registers supply would automatically order new pills because it would think it has sold out. When you look on shelf or bin, there would be a surplus left over and someone would notice. Not veryone who works there will be crooked.

Pharmacy employees who are addicted, or in street sales, will break pills so they get "tossed" into throwout bin, but they retain a portion of the pill. The portion they steal is "dust" in a bin bottom for purposes of inventory and FDA issues.
Additionally, the antibiotic pill has no street value and is needed to be taken in a complete cycle, leading me to believe it is a mistake.