On January 31, The New York Times released an article titled, “How Chaos at Chain Pharmacies Is Putting Patients at Risk.” Since I work in a chain pharmacy, I decided I would follow the article and see how these companies were managing the issues that this article pointed out.
In summary, the article explains how pharmacists are expected to do more than just count medicine and how the sheer amount of scores and chores they have to keep up with on a daily basis is causing them to make serious, sometimes fatal mistakes when it comes to actually dispensing medications.
Both patients and pharmacists had a lot to say about it on Twitter.
Now that this issue is out there, pharmacists have come forward with similar experiences, and the public has had their chance to respond. It seems that the pharmacies mentioned in the article have tried to defend themselves, even after the article mentioned several medication mix-ups. One was even fatal to a patient.
Do you fill at an independent or chain pharmacy? Do you ever feel like your pharmacist is overworked? Let us know how you feel these standards are affecting your safety as a potential patient in the comments or on Twitter @meeman901