Aa
Do you count your subox?
OH MY GOD. Really. Some one in my doc's office commented, quite by accident, that she counts her subox strips since the pharmacy shorted her one a couple of months ago. I asked her which pharmacy and she names the Walgreen's down the hill that I use. I use it because it is where I filled the first scrip to bring back to the docs for induction. I live in Santa Fe and it is in Albuquerque so not convenient or familiar to me.
I recalled her words a few hours later when I picked up my bottle for the week---as I climbed in my car for the drive home. My insurance had declined to cover an anti-depressant the doc gave me a scrip for so my daughter and I were talking as we left the pharmacy and I recalled the "always count" advice a little to late.
14. Not 13. There should have been 14 but yes, I got shorted. I literally flung myself out of the car and ran back inside to report the shortage. The girl at the counter was oddly unsurprised. "It's OK, we'll check the count and give you the one we missed." She asks me to move over to the consult counter.
There I observe them counting from two open boxes and I hear, "We're short." "How many?" "(counts aloud) 13."
The pharmacist does not blink, just calmly walks over to me and says "We double counted your prescription. I personally counted it and it had 14."
My reply,"No, because when I got to the car I counted only 13. I was advised to count them and forgot to until I got outside."
"Well, you should have counted them inside." Very snide. "I am not saying you are lieing but it is a controlled substance and we cannot help you."
"Uh, you are short your total count, how would you know if you shorted me?" I ask exasperated.
Quite calmly she says, "Oh we could be short for any number of reasons. I think it is a miscount."
UH--they miscounted just then but not when they filled my order? "I want to talk to a manager." I insist, calmly.
"Sorry, he is not here until 5pm. I will write down your name and have him call you." She jots down my name on a scrap of paper at first. An aide comes over with a form and says, "Put her information here." It is a formal document that basically says I contest the total.
"Why didn't you get that in the first place?" I ask.
"I don't usually work at this store." She answers, quite defensive. "We only use that for when the count indicates we actually made an error." Very snide and acusatory.
"I think 13 short is an error." I reply quite amused. I mean, it hits me, OK, I am short 1 strip. I can still fill on the same day, just lose the one. They are the one with the real problem. "I will call back when I get home."
"We can't help you until he gets here." She argues.
"Sure." I answer and walk away.
OK---I am fired up by the time I get home 90 min later. Angry. Sure, no one is going to believe the drug addict. My daughter, 21, was with me through this whole thing and her comment as we walked away, I am sure that wacko pharmacist heard it, "This is all very suspicious."
I called and spoke to the store manager first. He was shocked to hear they were short 13 strips. Horrified is more like it. He promised to view the tapes immediately and call be back. I gave him the time frame and he said he'd call back in an hour--approx 4pm.
I called him back at 445. He says he reviewed the tape and he is going to talk to the pharmacist manager when he gets there at 5. I ask if he sees them count out 14 and confirm it. He replies he sees 14 counted out. BUT no answer to the last part. I ask if he can track the bottle on camera the ENTIRE TIME. He says he did not watch enough. "But the pharmacy manager will be here soon and I am going to talk to him. I've been told you should have counted it inside since once it leaves the store we cannot help." Again with the brush off. He is already telling me in a back handed way that I am screwed.
"I have filled hundreds of scrips with Walgreens, narcotic meds most of them, never counted them before. Have you?" I ask and he says no but maybe the pharmacy manager can do something.
"Well, I think I need to report this to the police. You guys are short 13 strips and I am short one, you've got a problem here." He tries to assure me that if something is wrong they will be the first to report it to the police. "But, the 13 are still missing?"
"Yes. But it could be a technical error." He tries to say without conviction. We end the call.
I call the police investigations, get an officer who forwards me to a voicemail to leave a detailed account of my "complaint."
Not five minutes after I am done, about 10 min or so after I spoke to the store manager the pharmacy manager calls me. He wasn't there supposedly when I called the last time. It is now a bit after five pm. The first thing he tells me is that they can't just hand out drugs to everyone who says their bottle is short. They have no indication that I was shorted. And... he found the missing drugs, they were just out of eye sight or some thing retarded like that. But the kicker, he basically threatens me if I call the cops. I told him, "Too late. I already spoke to them. Not because I think I will get what was stolen from me, but that if it has happened to me I am not the only one. Maybe they are already looking in to your pharmacy."
I got a message today thanking me for my "tip." It would be reviewed and if I need any further assistance to not hesitate to call. The police have my name and number, I have no fear of being arrested or something. Maybe it is easier to believe the pharmacy than the drug addict most of the time but narco cops gotta know that drugs get diverted out of pharmacies all the time and your average drug addict might be too afraid to report being shorted.
Not me. I am so offended I can hardly see straight. They screwed me and KNEW I could not do anything. Their mistake was letting me hear how much they were missing.
I hope they get caught. I really do.
I recalled her words a few hours later when I picked up my bottle for the week---as I climbed in my car for the drive home. My insurance had declined to cover an anti-depressant the doc gave me a scrip for so my daughter and I were talking as we left the pharmacy and I recalled the "always count" advice a little to late.
14. Not 13. There should have been 14 but yes, I got shorted. I literally flung myself out of the car and ran back inside to report the shortage. The girl at the counter was oddly unsurprised. "It's OK, we'll check the count and give you the one we missed." She asks me to move over to the consult counter.
There I observe them counting from two open boxes and I hear, "We're short." "How many?" "(counts aloud) 13."
The pharmacist does not blink, just calmly walks over to me and says "We double counted your prescription. I personally counted it and it had 14."
My reply,"No, because when I got to the car I counted only 13. I was advised to count them and forgot to until I got outside."
"Well, you should have counted them inside." Very snide. "I am not saying you are lieing but it is a controlled substance and we cannot help you."
"Uh, you are short your total count, how would you know if you shorted me?" I ask exasperated.
Quite calmly she says, "Oh we could be short for any number of reasons. I think it is a miscount."
UH--they miscounted just then but not when they filled my order? "I want to talk to a manager." I insist, calmly.
"Sorry, he is not here until 5pm. I will write down your name and have him call you." She jots down my name on a scrap of paper at first. An aide comes over with a form and says, "Put her information here." It is a formal document that basically says I contest the total.
"Why didn't you get that in the first place?" I ask.
"I don't usually work at this store." She answers, quite defensive. "We only use that for when the count indicates we actually made an error." Very snide and acusatory.
"I think 13 short is an error." I reply quite amused. I mean, it hits me, OK, I am short 1 strip. I can still fill on the same day, just lose the one. They are the one with the real problem. "I will call back when I get home."
"We can't help you until he gets here." She argues.
"Sure." I answer and walk away.
OK---I am fired up by the time I get home 90 min later. Angry. Sure, no one is going to believe the drug addict. My daughter, 21, was with me through this whole thing and her comment as we walked away, I am sure that wacko pharmacist heard it, "This is all very suspicious."
I called and spoke to the store manager first. He was shocked to hear they were short 13 strips. Horrified is more like it. He promised to view the tapes immediately and call be back. I gave him the time frame and he said he'd call back in an hour--approx 4pm.
I called him back at 445. He says he reviewed the tape and he is going to talk to the pharmacist manager when he gets there at 5. I ask if he sees them count out 14 and confirm it. He replies he sees 14 counted out. BUT no answer to the last part. I ask if he can track the bottle on camera the ENTIRE TIME. He says he did not watch enough. "But the pharmacy manager will be here soon and I am going to talk to him. I've been told you should have counted it inside since once it leaves the store we cannot help." Again with the brush off. He is already telling me in a back handed way that I am screwed.
"I have filled hundreds of scrips with Walgreens, narcotic meds most of them, never counted them before. Have you?" I ask and he says no but maybe the pharmacy manager can do something.
"Well, I think I need to report this to the police. You guys are short 13 strips and I am short one, you've got a problem here." He tries to assure me that if something is wrong they will be the first to report it to the police. "But, the 13 are still missing?"
"Yes. But it could be a technical error." He tries to say without conviction. We end the call.
I call the police investigations, get an officer who forwards me to a voicemail to leave a detailed account of my "complaint."
Not five minutes after I am done, about 10 min or so after I spoke to the store manager the pharmacy manager calls me. He wasn't there supposedly when I called the last time. It is now a bit after five pm. The first thing he tells me is that they can't just hand out drugs to everyone who says their bottle is short. They have no indication that I was shorted. And... he found the missing drugs, they were just out of eye sight or some thing retarded like that. But the kicker, he basically threatens me if I call the cops. I told him, "Too late. I already spoke to them. Not because I think I will get what was stolen from me, but that if it has happened to me I am not the only one. Maybe they are already looking in to your pharmacy."
I got a message today thanking me for my "tip." It would be reviewed and if I need any further assistance to not hesitate to call. The police have my name and number, I have no fear of being arrested or something. Maybe it is easier to believe the pharmacy than the drug addict most of the time but narco cops gotta know that drugs get diverted out of pharmacies all the time and your average drug addict might be too afraid to report being shorted.
Not me. I am so offended I can hardly see straight. They screwed me and KNEW I could not do anything. Their mistake was letting me hear how much they were missing.
I hope they get caught. I really do.
I 100% know exactly how you feel. I had a situation months ago where i went to get my xanax refilled. It was on a Fri afternoon and i was supposed to get 100 of them. After i picked them up i glanced in the bag to make sure the label said 100 and 1mg strength. When i actually took them out of the bag the bottle was clearly short. So i counted them twice in my car and i had only had 50 in there!! I went back in and explained and the woman behind the desk claimed she personally double counted them herself and there was nothing she could do. I became enraged because clearly this woman stole half of my prescription. I asked to speak to the manager and she said she was the manager and there was nothing she could do. I reported her and the pharmacy but i still get so mad thinking about. It's far to easy for them to say they counted it out and it's their word against yours. Of course the pharmacy is always gonna win. Even though this happened months ago i still get so upset about it. Now that you brought this up i guess i need to count my suboxone strips also. I figured since they came in boxes with the amount on them i didn't have to worry, apparently i do and that's just sad.
I hope it gets resolved for you! Hopefully, they're not like our cameras which are there only in case of break-in. They are not zoomed in on us and definitely can't see our hands counting pills.
Oh believe me, I know not all pharmacy folks are bad. I have had really good experiences before and never really worried about counting anything. The thing is, I was warned earlier in the day that they had shorted another patient at the same clinic I go to. It seemed sort of far fetched, her story, that I did not think to count the strips til I got to the car and I was astonished to realize there were only 13. We even searched the car, just in case, somehow I had dropped one in my lap while counting? Unlikely but just in case it was my fault.... I searched the car before we drove away.
The fact is the strip did not leave the store with me. So somehow, some way that 14th strip was diverted. If the count on camera appears to be 14 someone either took it afterwards or knows how to fool the camera. Either way it is not an accident. I suspect the final person who counted the strips is the guilty party. I also suspect they moved or took the 13 other ones and put them back in the wrong place before the pharmacy manager arrived so the shortage would be fixed and clear them of any wrong doing. If I had not noticed the short I bet those thirteen would have disappeared as well. But my complaint put the stock of suboxone in the spotlight and there is no way the personn would want to be looked at closely.
Eva
The fact is the strip did not leave the store with me. So somehow, some way that 14th strip was diverted. If the count on camera appears to be 14 someone either took it afterwards or knows how to fool the camera. Either way it is not an accident. I suspect the final person who counted the strips is the guilty party. I also suspect they moved or took the 13 other ones and put them back in the wrong place before the pharmacy manager arrived so the shortage would be fixed and clear them of any wrong doing. If I had not noticed the short I bet those thirteen would have disappeared as well. But my complaint put the stock of suboxone in the spotlight and there is no way the personn would want to be looked at closely.
Eva
As a Pharmacy Tech myself, sometimes we may seem to ACT like a pharmacist because we actually do more than the actual pharmacist. We just don't have the fancy degree or the outlandish salary.
ALWAYS count before you leave if you have had problems. Our policy is that those types of drugs have to be counted twice by us and logged. If you leave the store with them, it is no longer our responsibility, because as was stated, we do not know who is actually telling the truth. I can assure you that there are other addicts who were not shorted lying and they ruin it for the honest people. We do make mistakes, but in MY store, no mistakes are made with those due to the procedure we use.
Not all of us pharmacy people are bad, I promise. :)
ALWAYS count before you leave if you have had problems. Our policy is that those types of drugs have to be counted twice by us and logged. If you leave the store with them, it is no longer our responsibility, because as was stated, we do not know who is actually telling the truth. I can assure you that there are other addicts who were not shorted lying and they ruin it for the honest people. We do make mistakes, but in MY store, no mistakes are made with those due to the procedure we use.
Not all of us pharmacy people are bad, I promise. :)
When I was taking Roxicodones my doctor told me to ALWAYS count my pills at the Pharmacy counter! She said patients get shorted all the time! I never did! Maybe that's why I always ran out early!!! LOL Um no, I was taking too much! What a story! Sorry Eva!
i know that walgreens has shorted my mom&me when I was n florida.I will tell u where I live now and others@walgreens r very rude.the girls who r just techs act like they r pharmacists&the pharmacists r really rude here.If u decide2go back2that pharmacy(or any really)yes count them at the counter.14will take30seconds to count.ALL pharmacies r supposed2count twice but they dont very often.Or they have a18-19yr old tech just count.Ive watched,I know a girl(friend4-
15+yrs@19she was a tech then@the time we thought it was cool she wouldnt throw away the broken pills she would pocket them.She wasnt takong th from peoples bottles&shorting them but thats been known to happen a lot.Happened2my husband@walgreens2yrs ago.They did catch the girl cause of the cameras and she didnt take1or2 she took10pain killers)from30/4dental work&12of45xanax so it was obvious.ALWAYS COUNT AT THE COUNTER.
15+yrs@19she was a tech then@the time we thought it was cool she wouldnt throw away the broken pills she would pocket them.She wasnt takong th from peoples bottles&shorting them but thats been known to happen a lot.Happened2my husband@walgreens2yrs ago.They did catch the girl cause of the cameras and she didnt take1or2 she took10pain killers)from30/4dental work&12of45xanax so it was obvious.ALWAYS COUNT AT THE COUNTER.
Now you need to call your insurance company to complain. Fourteen were paid for but thirteen were dispensed. Everyone gets screwed in this deal. Now, nothing will happen to them but the questions and phone calls will be enough punishment.
Then, call your doctor and try to get an rx for ONE strip. Fill it there the next time you're in ABQ.
Then, call your doctor and try to get an rx for ONE strip. Fill it there the next time you're in ABQ.
That s*cks! I can tell you from being in the medical field, I have come across different pharmacies that have shorted patients on their medications and they get really defensive and blame the patient. I did have an experience where I had to have them do a recount and it showed they were in error. Any other time they have refused to do that and then the patient is scr*wed. From now on I am sure that you will be counting your strips at the counter. Hard lesson to learn. Somethings that I have learned in my years as a medical professional is that you never screw with peoples medications or their money. You did the right thing reporting it to the police. Im sorry there is a stigma that is attatched to being a recovering addict. In my opinion an addict is more aware of mistakes and miscounts than the FBI!
It will all come out in the wash. Give it some time. Hang in there((hugs))~Bkitty
It will all come out in the wash. Give it some time. Hang in there((hugs))~Bkitty
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