Utopia, What??? Do you work for Walgreens?????
they have people’s lives in their hands every day. I’m sorry if I expect them to do their job right!!!!!!!
I am going to play devil’s advocate here…since the victim was a high school wrestling coach, why wasn’t he more proactive with his health and well being? Why didn’t he question what the doctor was prescribing him? I know that everyone would like to place all their faith in their doctors..pharmacisits, too. I went to Walgreens once for a refill on my perscription. I realized that it was not the same size & color (No, it was NOT a generic drug and not a different generic house). I went back to the pharmacy to verify my perscription and lo & behold, I was given someone else’s perscription. What happened? “Sorry, ma’am…..we will fix this for you right away” I said “Sorry, sir….you just lost my business” and I haven’t been back since.
My doctor uses one of those “PDA” thingys that show the drug interactions – he has been using one for over 5 years or so..they are as common as a cell phone. I don’t know why more doctors don’t use them.
On another note, the pharmacist should have known about drug interactions WITHOUT the benefit of a MERK index. They do go to school for years, don’t they? What happened to using texts? Too slow??? Too bad!! For gosh sakes, taking methadone alone is “cause for alarm” and mixing it with another drug? The pharmacy is always quick to let us know on the label what not to take with the medication, etc…. because of drug interaction (food, OTC meds, etc…).
My sister, a senior marketing rep. for a large pharmeceutical company says that pharmacists are the ones who are most knowledgeable (or at least should be) when it comes to various drugs and interactions. I agree that both the doctor and the pharmacist share the resonsibility in this case, as well as the victim. I do wonder, though, how much of these meds did he take? Was he following the directions? Or did he take too much of both? Are the meds themselves lethal while taken together?
Evidently the jury wasn’t convinced….I would like to have sat in on this one!!
I took methadone and tramadol together for pain management for many years..My doctor did warn me that the combination had a very slight risk of death for certain people with other medical conditions. This is actually the case with many drugs. My pharmacist filled the presciptions and only once advised that I never take more than the prescibed amount.
Why do you say that pharmacists should know drug interactions without the Merk index? With the thousand of drugs out there and the billions of possible interactions I would expect them to need the index. That’s what it’s there for, that’s why Merk updates it regularly and that’s why every pharmacists has one. I used to work for a food company and THEY had one in R&D to check for possible interactions with food additives (natural and organic company, but some things react with alcohol, vitamins and such). And why paw through hundreds of texts when the Merk gives it to you in one, albeit huge, book? Save the time and use the index.
This should have been caught, but I have to agree with Jason that you have pretty good odds with Walgreens. And I would say that even if it were my father or baby that was killed – though they wouldn’t get my business again (for purely emotional reasons; and heck, they don’t get my business now for purely financial reasons).
Lastbat, I totally agree that the Merk index is a god-send. If you read between the lines, I was jsut trying to make the point that we are all in such a hurry nowadays, that the potential for error may be higher using the index by looking up the incorrect meds. What the heck did we do BEFORE? No wonder we have THOUSANDS of perscription meds….Something to speed us up so we can keep up with the rat race and then something to slow us down when we become the “energizer bunny”. Haste makes waste…
I don’t think anyone is trivializing the deaths; only pointing out that two very costly mistakes out of millions of “jobs well done”, is not a bad record. Mistakes happen, but this is not an epidemic.
I’m not sure why the parents got a million each (unless the dead dad was taking care of them & their life expectancy is still quite a bit & their expenses are much greater than mine are), but did anyone notice the wife got zip – nada – nothing in the settlement, based on what was included in the article?
Kinda different…
And the kids, 2 million each… This coach must have been making the big bucks for them to think this to be a reasonable amount.
I take Synthroid daily and upon filling it at Walgreens, several years ago, noticed that the pill was very different. I went back in to question the pharmacist and was told by the tech that it was “probably a new manufacturer” and not to worry. I pointed out that the info included the same manufacturer name as before and asked to see the pharmacist. Wonder what would have happened if I had taken that nitroglycerin! Wonder what happened to the poor fella that got my synthroid in error and was told it was “probably a new manufacturer”. That was the last day I set foot in Walgreens.
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Hey Christina,
What perfect world do you live in? I want to move there.
Utopia, What??? Do you work for Walgreens?????
they have people’s lives in their hands every day. I’m sorry if I expect them to do their job right!!!!!!!
I am going to play devil’s advocate here…since the victim was a high school wrestling coach, why wasn’t he more proactive with his health and well being? Why didn’t he question what the doctor was prescribing him? I know that everyone would like to place all their faith in their doctors..pharmacisits, too. I went to Walgreens once for a refill on my perscription. I realized that it was not the same size & color (No, it was NOT a generic drug and not a different generic house). I went back to the pharmacy to verify my perscription and lo & behold, I was given someone else’s perscription. What happened? “Sorry, ma’am…..we will fix this for you right away” I said “Sorry, sir….you just lost my business” and I haven’t been back since.
My doctor uses one of those “PDA” thingys that show the drug interactions – he has been using one for over 5 years or so..they are as common as a cell phone. I don’t know why more doctors don’t use them.
On another note, the pharmacist should have known about drug interactions WITHOUT the benefit of a MERK index. They do go to school for years, don’t they? What happened to using texts? Too slow??? Too bad!! For gosh sakes, taking methadone alone is “cause for alarm” and mixing it with another drug? The pharmacy is always quick to let us know on the label what not to take with the medication, etc…. because of drug interaction (food, OTC meds, etc…).
My sister, a senior marketing rep. for a large pharmeceutical company says that pharmacists are the ones who are most knowledgeable (or at least should be) when it comes to various drugs and interactions. I agree that both the doctor and the pharmacist share the resonsibility in this case, as well as the victim. I do wonder, though, how much of these meds did he take? Was he following the directions? Or did he take too much of both? Are the meds themselves lethal while taken together?
Evidently the jury wasn’t convinced….I would like to have sat in on this one!!
I took methadone and tramadol together for pain management for many years..My doctor did warn me that the combination had a very slight risk of death for certain people with other medical conditions. This is actually the case with many drugs. My pharmacist filled the presciptions and only once advised that I never take more than the prescibed amount.
Why do you say that pharmacists should know drug interactions without the Merk index? With the thousand of drugs out there and the billions of possible interactions I would expect them to need the index. That’s what it’s there for, that’s why Merk updates it regularly and that’s why every pharmacists has one. I used to work for a food company and THEY had one in R&D to check for possible interactions with food additives (natural and organic company, but some things react with alcohol, vitamins and such). And why paw through hundreds of texts when the Merk gives it to you in one, albeit huge, book? Save the time and use the index.
This should have been caught, but I have to agree with Jason that you have pretty good odds with Walgreens. And I would say that even if it were my father or baby that was killed – though they wouldn’t get my business again (for purely emotional reasons; and heck, they don’t get my business now for purely financial reasons).
Lastbat, I totally agree that the Merk index is a god-send. If you read between the lines, I was jsut trying to make the point that we are all in such a hurry nowadays, that the potential for error may be higher using the index by looking up the incorrect meds. What the heck did we do BEFORE? No wonder we have THOUSANDS of perscription meds….Something to speed us up so we can keep up with the rat race and then something to slow us down when we become the “energizer bunny”. Haste makes waste…
I don’t think anyone is trivializing the deaths; only pointing out that two very costly mistakes out of millions of “jobs well done”, is not a bad record. Mistakes happen, but this is not an epidemic.
I’m not sure why the parents got a million each (unless the dead dad was taking care of them & their life expectancy is still quite a bit & their expenses are much greater than mine are), but did anyone notice the wife got zip – nada – nothing in the settlement, based on what was included in the article?
Kinda different…
And the kids, 2 million each… This coach must have been making the big bucks for them to think this to be a reasonable amount.
ME, I am still trying to figure that one out. Why the parents and not the wife? Hummmm!
I take Synthroid daily and upon filling it at Walgreens, several years ago, noticed that the pill was very different. I went back in to question the pharmacist and was told by the tech that it was “probably a new manufacturer” and not to worry. I pointed out that the info included the same manufacturer name as before and asked to see the pharmacist. Wonder what would have happened if I had taken that nitroglycerin! Wonder what happened to the poor fella that got my synthroid in error and was told it was “probably a new manufacturer”. That was the last day I set foot in Walgreens.