Pharmacy mistakes

Pharmacy mistakes have been on the news lately, here's one story.

If your child almost dies due to a prescription overdose how would you react? A mother filled her 3 month old's prescription for a sinus infection. The pharmacist put the wrong dosage on the label which caused the infant to overdose.

The insurance department for Walgreens called the mother and offered her $2,000 for the mistake. Of course she turned it down, but what is sufficient payment for a mistake as big as this?

A friend of mine in GA, near Atlanta, has a son with a rare blood disorder among other developmental handicaps. He's on medication daily. She got his meds from the local CVS and noticed that some of the pills didn't look like what he had been taking.
So she called the store. The guy that answered says, casually, "oh yeah, we knew they got mixed up. Just bring it in and we'll get you the right kind" ... ?!?!?!?
He made no effort to call her and inform her that her son was not taking the medication he should be on. The kind the switched with was not harmful, thank god! But it could have been and they were so lax about it.
She went back and they gave her the next three bottles free and a $20 CVS gift card.

The fact is that there will always be mistakes made. There will always be people hurt by those mistakes. This country has gotten way too quick to ask for extremely large amounts of money just because something happens. Every "tragedy" leads to bigger and bigger payouts and the people that got paid off before are then wanting more money because someone else got more. Where does it stop?
The people who were killed in the 9/11 attacks, tragic as it is; their family members have gotten millions of dollars for their suffering.
The military members who have been sent to war because of that and subsequently died have gotten between $250,000 and $400,000.
One isolated incident deserves more than the brave people who go and try to defend our country?

Maybe my view is tainted on this subject, but I can't help but see all those people standing around with their hands out expecting other people to literally pay for their mistakes as lazy and selfish.

I also suggest that you count your prescriptions at the pharmacy counter. I have had them short me on my Prevacid quite a few times. That is a relatively expensive medication and even though my insurance is paying for it, we all pay for it in the long run. I was probably shorted 8 pills total last year (one bottle was 6 short!). I didn't start counting them until a coworker told me about her mother's meds being shorted all the time. If you leave the store/drive-through, they will likely not replace the missing pills.

Yeah, I have a prescription that is for 60 pills a month, I thought something looked different when I got home but didnt pay close enough attention. When I went to refill I thought, seems like I just did this, went to pick it up and they said you just did this, insurance wont pay, I said but I dont have any pills left, luckily I had the bottle in the car to remind me to pick them up and there was no way to fit 60 in that bottle! I was so relieved. I wasnt mad because I know I make a few too many mistakes in one day, but I did panic inside for a minute because I need to take the meds!

Oh, needless to say I do what mom says now and check before I leave the store

I get all my meds at the military pharmacy. not the retail stores. But even 1-2 missing pills would tick me off. Good job for counting before leaving the counter. I would too!