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CVS Prescription Errors

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It's estimated there are as many as 7,000 deaths annually in the United States from incorrect prescriptions and pharmacy regulators say the problem is getting worse as the number of prescriptions increases and the number of pharmacists decreases.

But surely a big company like CVS has a way to reduce the number of errors to nearly zero? We'd like to think so but the accounts we hear aren't very encouraging. In addition to the general mishaps below, we have a growing collection of consumer complaints about potentially serious errors including wrong counts, wrong dosage, the wrong drug and mistaken identity. The service pharmacy patients and their caregivers receive also leaves a lot to be desired.

Lauren of Edgewater Park, NJ September 28, 2009

The CVS Pharmacy has for the 5th time mixed up my prescriptions with my sisters. When she has a prescription filled, they call me and let me know my prescription is ready and visa versa. I have called numerious times regarding this matter. They tell me they will look into it. Every time I call they are rude and act as I am inconvinenceing them.

There should be no reason I am linked to my sister. We do not have the same name, initals, address, phone number, date of birth etc. I am lucky it is my sister they are calling and not a stranger with the same last name. This a HIPAA violation and CVS has made no attempt to correct this matter. Needless to say CVS will no longer have my business.

Millie of Amarillo, TX September 22, 2009

My son had just been dismissed from the hospital after a bad car wreck. I took him by my neighborhood CVS to fill his pain medication. After receiving the medication I took them to the car where we proceeded to open the bottle and count the pills as my husbands medication has been miscounted before. The prescription was ten pills short. After taking the medication back inside and explaining the situation, I was not only told that "there is no way the count was wrong, because we count our prescriptions twice", but that "maybe you took them out and are just trying to get more pills without having to pay for them". I was livid! Not only was this unnecessary but was stated loudly in front of other patrons. I was terribly embarassed at the accusation. Needeless to say I refuse to ever step foot inside of another CVS pharmacy.

Robin of Lehigh Acres, FL September 22, 2009

Miss count on prescription. Went to pick up a lot of prescriptions and count that they were only giving me one box of lidoderm patches instead of two I caught that right away they just handed me the other box no label no problem for them. I guess but My biggest complaint is my narcotic was short 30 pills The district manager had the pharmastis call me instead of her self to tell me that there count was right Like they were going to tell me that they did something wrong give me a break told me that this never happens

Elizabeth of Francisco, IN September 13, 2009

My daughter Hannah went to the CVS pharmacy to pick up her perscription and they gave her the complete wrong perscription with the wrong name on it, when i called them i spoke to a girl named Holly she gave me attitude, she told me to bring it back. I asked how they could make a mistake like this and she said i dont know, I had said to her something really needs to be done about this because if we had been older people and we didn't know the difference it could have done something terrible to us. So i really hope this issue will be taken care of.

Lesley of Hueytown, AL August 29, 2009

I went to the pharmacy on my lunch break. I went to take my medicine and luckly notice it wasn't mine but, an James M.. I called the pharmacy immeditly and was told to bring it right back. I explain I was at work. As soon as I got off work I went back to the pharmacy and was treated as though I had made the mistake.

My debit card was charged over 17.00 for James M.'s meds. Then charged 25.00 for mine . And was told it would be 3 days before the 17.00 would be back on my card. In these tough economic times this was not a good thing for me.

Mira of Belmont, NH August 15, 2009

My mother retired on disability from the state of NH. As such, she receives state benefits for the rest of her life, as well as Medicare. Her prescriptions are handled by CVS/Caremark...though I think Caremark is not very accurate.

2-3 weeks ago she sent in an rx from her endocrinologist. She is on Lantus Solostar for her diabetes. Her dosage had been upped to 100U. She heard nothing from them. She was running low, so she contacted Caremark. They told her they could not fill the rx because they needed to talk to her dr. She called the office and they called Caremark...everything was in order. Or so we thought. Her dr gave her 5 days worth of medication to get her through.

Thursday, 8/13/09, she called Caremark because her insulin was not here and she was about to run out. They apologized and told her it was being mailed overnight and she would have it Friday. It is now Saturday and no meds...and she is out of insulin. She called Caremark again today and was given a run around. I called and she gave permission for them to speak to me. I was told the order is still processing and the soonest we can expect them to ship is Monday or Tuesday and it would be overnighted. After reading things here, I suspect it won't be. Meanwhile, she is out of insulin because of THEIR incompetence.

I was put on the phone with Marvin in the resolution center after I informed the rep that sorry was not acceptable. I explained to him that this could be life threatening. Over and over his answer was he was sorry about the inconvenience. His solution was for her to call her dr and have a script written to fill at a local pharmacy...at her cost. I told him this was NOT acceptable.

They have had more than enough time to get this taken care of had they contacted her in the first place. Was told that is not their policy. And again told me to contact her dr. It's SATURDAY! The office is closed! Her sugars run in the 400-500 range without medication!

This is so completely unacceptable. I will be contacting the AG, state reps...anyone and everyone I can. This cannot and should not be allowed to continue. I am apalled that they even felt it was their place to question a dr's order...it's prescribed because it is needed. And I was shocked to see how many others this has happened to!

Laura of Chatham, VA July 31, 2009

The CVS in Chatham (pop 1200) suffers from lack of competition. There is always, repeat always, a little something wrong when we try to fill a prescription. They often do not have the medication. They do not leave messages by phone. "We can't discuss prescriptions on answering machines" is their excuse. Well, they certainly could say, "This is CVS. Please call us back." The firedrill is alays the same. One goes to pick up the medication, is told that it isn't there, we ask them to phone the doctor, they phone, then discover the doctor did indeed call in the Rx, but they didn't have it. Then they either go and get it or have us wait up to 5 days to get it.

However, they never, repeat never, attempt to get the medication from another CVS unless we are standing at the counter. Somehow, they don't know to start this process until they have a frustrated and disappointed customer at the counter. This has occurred the past four or five times we have attempted to get a prescription there. Never mind the constant hassle of trying to get them to stop using child-proof lids for a 90-year-old whose hands find everything difficult. Which causes yet more special trips back to the pharmacy. This time, the pharmacist curtly suggested we were "welcome to go to any other pharmacy," which is a not very nice way of saying you can drive 32 miles round trip to the next nearest drug store. It's not that we thought this of CVS when they first opened; they have taught us this. Nothing ever goes smoothly with them.

Lisa of LaPlata, MD July 25, 2009

On 7/22/09 I was diagnosed with shingles on my eyelid and was perscribed Trifluriine 1% eye drops by my opthamologist. After seeing my opthamologist I went immediately to CVS Pharmacy and had my perscription filled. I was instructed to use the drops every 3 hours to prevent the virus from entering the eye itself. If the virus enters the eye, loss of vision can result and the virus never leaves the eye. On 7/25/2009 I noticed that the expiration date on the bottle read 04/2009. The eye drops had expired 3 months ago! I had been using them for 3 days! I saw my opthamologist on 7/22/09 and 7/24/09 and am scheduled to go back on 7/30/09. I don't know if the medication was effective or if it harmed my eye. CVS did give me a new bottle of drops and I still have the old one that expired.

Sarah of Fairfax, VA July 22, 2009

I take 150mg of lithium 5x/day. The prescription was filled for 300mg 5x/day (double my usual dosage) As I was filling it at a new pharmacy, I didn't worry about the different color of the casing. I took it for nine days before I realized and had terrible side-effects.

Natasha of Carlsbad, CA July 15, 2009

I went to fill a prescription for Subutex 8mg (x30)on 7-10-09 and when I got home up in North County San Diego, Carlsbad, I discovered that I had someone elses prescription. Not only did I pay 240 and fill it far from my house(near work)but they made me drive down there at 10pm to get it. They should have at least filled it near my home. The most alarming thing about this is that if the person who my prescription got switched with had taken it, they easily could have died! I was offered nothing, not even 5.00 for my trouble! They told me that to avoid further complications I had better come right then, at 10pm. My husband had to drive me and we had to take my young son. What if I couldn't afford to drive all the way back down south or what if I was sick and had to take it right then...what if the other guy had died? trusting that he was given "his prescription"