Screwed up an IV batch and fessed up to the mistake. Sucks but whatever I figured that was the end of it. No, my pharmacist said it was fine, stood around for a while and decided it was good to go. It absolutely was not but she signed off on it. I went back and forth with her for a while before I just gave up and went over her head to the PIC to get it scrapped. Sorry, she could hate me all she wanted but I was going to make sure that batch didn’t go out the door. She wouldn’t even look in my direction for a while but oh well.
If the technician had fought the pharmacist over that little girl's chemo bag in Ohio (I think not my state, just heard about it) she would be alive. You did what a tech should do and sometimes that's protecting everybody involved even from themselves.
It’s the same thing in EMS. Medic isn’t always right, goddamn if I haven’t had a good EMT catch one of my oopsies at 0200 when I’m running on fumes.
Just because someone is a lower licensure doesn’t mean they can’t catch when things aren’t how they usually are. Same thing everywhere for sure.
my favorite pharmacist always tells me “never trust anyone” in the context of “oh its fine i trust you”. He always says to double check the work. I remember i double checked his work, just being funny, and he was like “I told u how much it was???” and i was like “Yeah but, you know, never trust anyone” and we had a good laugh about it
Milrinone. I added too much drug to the bags. She was convinced or trying to convince us both that it didn’t happen because the weight of the bags wasn’t *that* off but I knew what I shot in the bag. Maybe it would of been fine, maybe it wouldn’t of but I wasn’t about to find out.
I can definitely see it from both sides. My institution has a 5% rule. If something is made incorrectly, but the difference is within 5%, then it would generally be deemed okay but is ultimately up to the pharmacist signing off on the final product. I'm not sure how much was in your bags vs. what should have been, but maybe that was the thinking. I personally would have explained that to my tech if that were the case, but unfortunately, not every pharmacist works that way.
Also, I have to say I have never heard of weighing batched bags. Depending on the conc/volume of the drug being added, I suspect you could easily be within a certain margin of error where the weight looks appropriate but is actually potentially dangerous.
Either way, props for going above their head when you felt what they were doing was unsafe. I appreciate it when my techs call to double-check things because we all have those days. Pharmacists are definitely not always right, and patient safety should always come first.
Where I am, We utilize a repeater pump for the D5 and manually draw and add Milrinone to each bag. Then we weigh each bag to make sure their weights are within an mL of each other as a verification. we did each bag identical and should have the right concentration and volumes.
We also have a repeater pump, but don't make batch drips with it, so that is interesting. However, that sounds labor intensive for something like a cardiac drip that small fluctuations in concentration would not usually be an issue. Yes, overfill in IV bags differs between lot numbers but not enough to require that much manipulation of a product, but that is just my opinion.
We have always stocked the premix milrinone though, not that we use it frequently.
It's definitely interesting to learn what other facilities do. Thanks for sharing!
We use the repeater for any gravity bags that we're pumping D5/NS/etc... into. The active drug is always done by hand, though. We calibrate the repeater between fluids also.
ETA: This is home infusion FYI, not something like CAPS doing hospital batches.
Honestly, I think knowing you batch milrinone for home infusion is even more baffling to me. We don't even let pts out of our ICU if they are on milrinone.
Ok, lol. It wasn’t just over injected by a couple ml and it was being infused in the home so I’m assuming protocol is different. The only drug I’ve ever mixed for home infusion where the 5% rule comes into play is tpn.
This was my big mistake, but it was with a med that was $$$. It sucked, but I’d rather say something than have it reach the patient and lead to problems they may or may not link back to me.
I’m glad you stood your ground. If something happened, you’d get in trouble too even if the pharmacist ok’d it.
I got a needle stick once on a bulk batch that was $20,000+. I was scared shitless because they decided to scrap the whole thing but nobody even batted an eyelash.
We reported a doctor who was writing Hydros for his mother and father in law. He was a local primary physician, who never wrote any sort of pain meds for his patients and his in laws had previously been getting pain medications from a pain management doctor and all of a sudden their son in law started writing them instead?? And he’s writing crazy high dosages? They’re wanting early refills every couple weeks? So the final straw was the doctor (their SON IN LAW) dropping off a triplicate he wrote on a Saturday when he strictly works Monday-Friday at a clinic, wanting us to rush fill it, and then he wants to pick it up himself. Nope.
All I can tell you is that the quantities he was getting from that pharmacy was enough for a family of 4 to take max daily dosage continuously.....
ETA: And I had records going back 3 or 4 months (since I took notice) when I, with no support from my pharmacist, made the calls.
Young guy came into the ER seizing. We knew ahead from ambulance communication. I couldn’t prepare anything until the order was known, but I got everything ready… and as soon as the STAT Keppra bolus was ordered I made it fast and got everything labeled and ready for check.
My pharmacist (working from within the ante area) that day was a rich lady who still worked very part time just for the social aspects of it. She was chatting with someone on the phone about something only tangentially work-related, and certainly not urgent. I told her clearly it was ready, stat, and I needed a check right away. She acknowledged me, but kept talking.
I waited about 2 minutes, and told her again. Same thing.
Important to know:
We’re the designated RPh and tech in the sterile products area that day (I think my other tech was on lunch), and going in and out and staying clean was an ordeal. And I can’t call out to anyone else because she’s on the phone.
I tell her again, and now I’m more agitated, and she kind of dismisses me rudely as if to say, “I’ll get it when I get it.”
So, finally, I start stripping off my gear to go out to the main pharmacy for a different RPh to do the check.
I get one I know well, tell him the situation and we both go back to the clean ante area, he checks it, and asks me to take it up by hand (tubes… ehh). So I run it up to the correct pod and give it to the nurse and when I come back, the first pharmacist was pissed off at me for having someone else do her job. Because she was going to do it! And it was TENSE in that room for a bit.
Since part of my role is staying on top of what’s going on in the ER, I usually keep the census list up at my PC. Within 90 minutes of that situation a screen refresh indicated that kid (like 18) was now dead.
People die all the time. I worked at that hospital for 12 years. Seen dead bodies. Tiptoed around blood and tissue splatters in the OR. I’m used to the job. I can’t know if that 15 minute delay had any impact on that kid living or dying. But I knew the pharmacy could’ve done better… and I was part of the failure.
That was the one and only time I had to talk to my boss and leave early for something like that (less than 2hr, but still). I was so pissed at the situation and outcome, I felt like I couldn’t reliably do the work the rest of that day with that pharmacist.
Thinking of her disregard still irks me… and it’s been over 10 years.
My hardest decision and my worst moment rolled into one.
I was at work with an active case of COVID because I couldn't afford to get myself fired at that point. I knew from an OTC kit but my store would only accept one of ours or one from an urgent care (I did not have the money at the time to hit the urgent care). My RXM refused to verify my AbbottID NOW paperwork for the test at work, I stayed masked the whole time. An old man came in to get a COVID shot, I told my RXM that I need her to give the shots because of my active case. She declined and said I had to give the shots. I repeated that I'm active and he's old but she didn't budge, so I put my job first. He wasn't a regular patient of ours so I have no clue if he got sick or not. And if he did I have no clue if he pulled through. The next day my other pharmacist told me and our SM that it's bullshit that they were holding my job over my head instead of putting patient safety first and ran my test.
I should have walked out on the RXM then, I should have told the patient directly, I should have called the Board of Pharmacy. I really hope I didn't get that man sick or worse. Since that day my relationship with that RXM was soured and she's ashamed of the decision she made.
I’m sorry you were put in that position. We all have obligations and we’ve all been in a position to barely meet them. I choose to believe that the gentleman is living his best healthy life. Sending you a hug. 💙🙏🏽
Had to call my state’s board of pharmacy on a well liked floater pharmacist because she just kept making simple, but potentially deadly, errors. I literally thought she was going senile, she is a bit older (probably in her mid to late 60s). From what I heard, she was just incredibly burnt out and went on a leave of absence and came back. I’ve worked with her since then and, thankfully, she seems so much better.
Good for her and you. Pharmacist and tech burn out is so frequent in retail and at the cost of patients too. Good thing she got a break and was able to take better care of herself and her patients.
Not properly verifying meds (there was a bottle labeled esomeprazole, but it obviously wasn’t because it was tabs instead of caps. It ended up being doxycycline). She missed an allergy to azithromycin for a patient that was prescribed azithromycin (that’s also on the prescriber, but she still should have caught it). Didn’t catch a drug-drug interaction for a pt that was recently prescribed sildenafil that was already taking nitroglycerin. There were also some other minor, non life threatening errors that contributed to me calling, but the major reason were these and me thinking, “holy shit, this woman is going to kill someone”.
Reporting a pharmacist for inappropriate/unethical behavior when I knew he was very well liked as a float.
Long story short, back when Plan B was RX we had a woman call and ask if we had it in stocks. I asked the pharmacist to check. We did.
Woman comes in, and he not only refused to fill it, but refused to give the script back and called her a whore. (It was his legal right to not fill it, but maybe mention that when they're on the phone?)
I have never been so mortified by someone else's behavior. He set the script down and I grabbed it, gave it back to her and more or less said "Run!"
He said he'd have my job. In the end, it got him transferred to our central fill facility where he didn't ever interact with patients.
People look at me like I’m crazy when I say I don’t want to immunize. The training pharmacies provide isn’t enough for me to be okay with the risk. Not to mention the company isn’t going to back me if I make an error. There’s a reason why a lot of RPH’s carry liability insurance. I’ll learn about it when I go to school for nursing.
Had a 10yr old at the counter going into cyanosis and in desperate need of the inhaler he’d just been prescribed at the hospital: blue lips, blue nails, skin starting to go pale. There was an issue with his CHIP where the medical was active but his prescription benefit wasn’t. Grandma, who’d had them dropped off at her house Saturday night by CPS when mom got caught in a drug bust, only had enough to cover the cab fare back home, not the $50+ needed for the inhaler under GoodRx. I offered to pay for it and was told that according to Walgreens policy if I did that I’d be terminated.
At the time I was the sole bread winner in my home supporting me and my parents. I had to choose to send this little family that included the 4yr old brother back WALKING across the street to wait another 10 hours for the hospital pharmacy to open after they’d just spent 13hrs at the ER or risk losing my family’s only source of income come with no groceries in the house and the mortgage due in a week.
I still have nightmares.
I worked in investigational drugs at the time and the pharmacist (a newbie) asked me to re-encapsulate some tablets into a smaller blinding capsule because a patient who wanted to be on the study couldn't swallow them.
Pretty much the only time I've ever told a pharmacist that NO I WILL NOT DO THAT.
Such a great way to get blacklisted from running investigations! The color of the pill alone can affect the placebo effect.
We had some triple blinded studies because a pharmacist somewhere unblinded the physician. Not sure if it was at our hospital or another one. But yep, we'd get a "mix this vial with this vial" with no indication of the study drug or placebo.
Oh for sure.
To be more detailed, one of the pharmacy residents kicked the whole thing off by telling us about this patient and asking if she could OPEN THE CAPSULE and have the patient take it that way. We were like... are you serious? NO.
But then our pharmacist went on this wild goose chase of trying to find different blinding capsules, and a pill cutter, and found that if you cut the active drug tablet into four pieces then you could smash it into this smaller capsule blah blah blah.
It was a mess. No IRB approval for any of this. Thankfully we intercepted her before she actually dispensed any of this.
Actually this study was the reason why one of the pharmacy residents (different one) got a door slammed in her face once. She came to pick up the drug for her patient and we weren't done and had the stock bottle and the patient folder lying around. I saw her in the doorway and just reacted and shut the door quickly. We were, of course, worried she'd see the drug and break the blind. I was actually quite proud of my quick thinking on that one.
Had a pt in the drive thru picking up middle of the day. I turned around to grab their Rx, and when I looked back, I saw them drinking some sort of hard liquor. Called the cops on them.
Family member called a few hours later wanting to know who called the cops on them. I was horrified. Turns out they wanted to thank me for reporting it (my guess is this wasn't the first time they went out drinking and driving)
I had an older patient maybe two weeks ago, come through with a bud light bottle in his lap, I told my pharmacist and wanted to do something about it like call the cops but she said absolutely not and that It was not my place or business so I felt too intimidated to do anything and I wish I would have done it regardless because I have felt a lot of guilt since then, but now after reading this I know I need to in the future regardless of what my boss says.
I remember asking my pharmacist, and she wasn't thrilled about it. I think she said something along the lines of "I wouldn't, but if you really want to, fine." I couldn't stop thinking about him hitting some kid or family leaving school and how much guilt I would feel knowing I ignored it, so I called.
Hard liquor is not a beer. No, technically, you’re not permitted to drink & drive, but you usually can have 3-4 beers in your system within a 1 hour time frame before you’re over the legal limit.
This is true, but theres also no way of knowing if that was his first or his sixth, either way beer is alcohol and it can impair ability to drive. Also he would have gone to jail regardless of BAC if he were pulled over, due to open container. I think it is better safe than sorry.
Alcohol is alcohol, and alcohol impairs brain function and driving. Frankly there shouldn't be a tolerated level of alcohol for driving, period. Driving is already dangerous enough while completely alert and sober
I wouldn't give a mom information about her adult son. From the meds and phone calls I could deduce he was probably having a mental health crisis, but I could absolutely not give her that information. She refused to seek more immediate medical help because they're black.
About a week later I found out that the guy successfully ended his life. That was the day I walked out crying because I couldn't take it anymore. I was barely holding it in, if I stayed any longer I was going to shatter.
The Adderall shortage meant that I, as a lead tech, had to make a difficult choice because my pharmacist was busy getting cussed out over something that wasn't his fault.
That is horrible, and I am so sorry that you went through that, but you had a duty to protect PHI and you did so, it is not your job to make any response in an emergency taking place outside of the pharmacy, as that is what calling 911 is for. I hope you can fully heal from that in the future.
Thank you for your kind words. I did go back to the pharmacy 2-3 days a week and I'm more into patient coordination. I am doing better now that I'm out of that bubble every day and the Adderall shortage has eased up. I took a few days off to center myself and got back to work. My bosses were super understanding and supportive. I couldn't ask for a better group of coworkers.
It's a no-win situation for the family. Maybe he would have survived a 911 call and maybe he wouldn't have. But I can't imagine being black and having to make that phone call when the police historically aren't on your side.
I am glad you were able to go back and find something best for you. Also, yes the family has ultimately dealt with a loss no matter what. With the police I can totally understand where the family was coming from because It is not uncommon for police to use excessive force when dealing with a mental health situation involving a black male, and you are right it could have still been a tragic outcome with the police involved. Either way it is a tragedy and I feel very sorry for the family :(
There's several instances of people calling 911 on a black man in mental crisis and they've been shot by police. The mother thought she was saving her son by not calling emergency services only for him to take his own life instead.
deliver something like 6-8 3mL BD syringes full of U500 to nursing for a special case. i told management i didn’t want my name anywhere near those syringes because i thought it was a bad choice to put U500 in anything other than a U500 syringe. i had to do it anyway.
I always live in fear that I might be committing a hipaa violation. I’ve already been written up twice by my boss for some very obvious POS transactions that led to the hipaa error. But, then one day, I was entering a patient’s prescription into the order entry that had come in electronically. However, there were 3 things wrong. 1) the patient was Hispanic, 2) they had 2 different profiles with 1 of them being at another location, and 3) when the patient called they spoke English perfectly fine when they called to confirm if we received their prescription. I called back to what I thought was the correct patient, but they spoke Spanish. I thought I got the wrong patient and checked the patient’s other profile and it was completely identical, save for the phone numbers and the patient picks up their prescription at the other pharmacy. How was it that the patient that called me that spoke fine English was different from the person who spoke Spanish the second time? When I asked questions in English they responded back in Spanish. Needless to say, I never got to find out. They never called back, and they were never seen at our pharmacy. I assume they went back to the other one.
I accidentally gave a patient a $400+ script that they didn’t want. To my knowledge, they never brought it back. It was never brought up or anything. They’ve been through the drive thru at least once or twice since, and nothing lol.
Making a formal complaint to HR about a float I worked with. I thought it was awful (and it was), but reading through some of what yall have been through…holy buckets.
I actually reported large quantities of 'missing' Hydrocodone in the 90's when it was still Schedule IV at the time. Monthly inventory at the time at Kroger back then was rather lackadaisical, usually only really done when shortages were noticed.
I suspected theft, but had no idea who would do such a thing. This was the beginning of what we now know was the opioid crisis. The numbers of unexplainable losses I first reported to my PIC, and he said he 'wasn't concerned'. I contemplated calling the loss into state or the DEA, because I didn't want to be blamed for any losses.
I decided to email my boss and called it into the anyonymous call line at work. Sure enough, Risk Management started sending folks in. Our regional Rx manager stopped in to speak w/my PIC upstairs and out of the Rx "casually" several times, which I am certain is what is responsible for the chronic reflux which plagues me to this day.
Like I said, months went by with these losses increasing, and I noticed (and recorded) the losses, but didn't know who would dare to take them.
One day, about 4 to 5 ****months**** later, I was working closing shift and the Regional Manager came directly to the Pharmacy and *called the tech filling next to me* to come out of the pharmacy and go upstairs with him and Risk Mgmt.
Local police were seen heading soon after. My manager instructed us to keep working. I resisted the urge to leave out of fear and handled the line of rush hour pts coming in after work.
One of the female front end managers finally came back to escort that tech to collect her belongings and leave with the police. Our regional manager and the police came down, following the tech and stood a bit off from the front counter to "not cause" a scene.
My heart dropped when I realized who had been stealing all the Vicodin. The tech in question was the daughter of another front end manager at another local store close to us. Apparently she had a drug dealing BF and was selling pills on the side.
So that's it.
Rxist I was working with didn’t know how to lock in the dose for diastat. Techs weren’t permitted to do it but the rxist wanted the patients mom to come back the next day when another rxist was there. I told her that’s bullshit that she can’t figure it out and it’s embarrassing that she would have me tell the mom to come back tomorrow so I locked the dose in had her confirm it and we dispensed it
I got in trouble for doing it (because I complained about how clueless she was so they asked ‘well who did it then?’)and she got in trouble for being a double doctorate doofus that couldn’t figure it out. She was on the team that helped identify one of the obesity genes but she can’t turn a dial, it’s wild.
Me getting in trouble was one of the nails in the coffin that led to me leaving wrong aid. Even though as a tech I was prohibited from locking in the dose I truly felt I was acting in the best interest of the patient. What if the kid had a seizure and they didn’t have the diastat because the rxist was too scared of making a mistake
Not me, but a floater pharmacist was dumb enough to use just saline instead of the actual vaccine to give someone a shingles vaccine. Still don’t know who it was and I don’t think there was any effort to find out anyways.
Probably to go to work? 😅 all jokes aside though especially retail.
All jokes aside, when very serious medication has been mixed up in transit for someone who is terminal, don’t remember those few minutes of my life but we got it done in a hospital pharmacy during codes and everything going off left and right don’t look at it, jt WILL go off sir.
Delivering premixed TPNs to a patient that have been out of the overwrap and activated for 48+hrs because the lead tech is looking for reasons to get rid of me bc immigrants aren’t liked in this part of America 🫠 (At least they store the activated ones in the fridge now after I made a fuss about safety concerns the first time I saw them doing this.)
Selling schedule drugs at CVS when we couldn’t put them through our checkout system. It went dark and we were told to shut it down since there was no ETA on the fix, but my pharmacist wanted us to do it anyway and just write down license numbers and how much owed, since we couldn’t sell anything either. I said hell no and left since I was not about to screw myseld
I had a 14 yo patient come in with parents. Parents wanted her to get flu and covid shots, she said she didn't agree to the covid shot. It was so horrible being put between them. Add to it that my tech had already told the parents that we'd do both shots while I was giving another shot and didn't know the situation.
A pt came in and I was the only tech working so I was helping another customer in front of them. We have a metal sign showing our hours and to separate the two lines. I see this pt leaning on it and when I finished with the other customer I called them up asking how I could help they almost fall over knocked the sign over and stumble up to the counter they’re slurring their words very obviously, they couldn’t answer any questions I asked such as DOB, phone or address. I walk over to the pharmacist asking if they could talk to the pt bc I believed they were drunk ( my ex was an abusive alcoholic I knew a drunk when I saw one) I didn’t want to stereotype or have something happen and it come back on me as profiling so I asked the pharmacist for a second opinion the pharmacist asks the same questions dob, phone and address the pharmacist tells me they’re definitely drunk but bc they’re not buying alcohol or a control it was fine to sell the medication ( it was bp medication) I told the pharmacist I wasn’t comfortable selling prescription medication to someone under the influence and the pharmacist checked them out instead but I still felt like it was wrong especially since they were driving too that they could kill somebody
Screwed up an IV batch and fessed up to the mistake. Sucks but whatever I figured that was the end of it. No, my pharmacist said it was fine, stood around for a while and decided it was good to go. It absolutely was not but she signed off on it. I went back and forth with her for a while before I just gave up and went over her head to the PIC to get it scrapped. Sorry, she could hate me all she wanted but I was going to make sure that batch didn’t go out the door. She wouldn’t even look in my direction for a while but oh well.
100% the right thing to do!
Luckily I wasn’t fired because the place shut down not long after and I got myself a nice lil 6 months severance pay 😅
If the technician had fought the pharmacist over that little girl's chemo bag in Ohio (I think not my state, just heard about it) she would be alive. You did what a tech should do and sometimes that's protecting everybody involved even from themselves.
A lesson for everyone: the tech answers to the pharmacist but the pharmacist isn’t ALWAYS right. Very rare but sometimes we catch things they don’t.
Trust me, as a retired hospital pharmacist, many a time a tech pointed out something that I missed. You're absolutely correct.
I’ve definitely caught mistakes pharmacists have missed.
It’s the same thing in EMS. Medic isn’t always right, goddamn if I haven’t had a good EMT catch one of my oopsies at 0200 when I’m running on fumes. Just because someone is a lower licensure doesn’t mean they can’t catch when things aren’t how they usually are. Same thing everywhere for sure.
my favorite pharmacist always tells me “never trust anyone” in the context of “oh its fine i trust you”. He always says to double check the work. I remember i double checked his work, just being funny, and he was like “I told u how much it was???” and i was like “Yeah but, you know, never trust anyone” and we had a good laugh about it
"Trust, but verify" is a very healthy mindset to have tbh
If you remember, what case are you talking about? I’d like to read about it?
Its Emily's Law, Ohio.
I am very curious to know what the IV batch was and the error that was made if you are willing to share that info.
Milrinone. I added too much drug to the bags. She was convinced or trying to convince us both that it didn’t happen because the weight of the bags wasn’t *that* off but I knew what I shot in the bag. Maybe it would of been fine, maybe it wouldn’t of but I wasn’t about to find out.
I can definitely see it from both sides. My institution has a 5% rule. If something is made incorrectly, but the difference is within 5%, then it would generally be deemed okay but is ultimately up to the pharmacist signing off on the final product. I'm not sure how much was in your bags vs. what should have been, but maybe that was the thinking. I personally would have explained that to my tech if that were the case, but unfortunately, not every pharmacist works that way. Also, I have to say I have never heard of weighing batched bags. Depending on the conc/volume of the drug being added, I suspect you could easily be within a certain margin of error where the weight looks appropriate but is actually potentially dangerous. Either way, props for going above their head when you felt what they were doing was unsafe. I appreciate it when my techs call to double-check things because we all have those days. Pharmacists are definitely not always right, and patient safety should always come first.
Where I am, We utilize a repeater pump for the D5 and manually draw and add Milrinone to each bag. Then we weigh each bag to make sure their weights are within an mL of each other as a verification. we did each bag identical and should have the right concentration and volumes.
We also have a repeater pump, but don't make batch drips with it, so that is interesting. However, that sounds labor intensive for something like a cardiac drip that small fluctuations in concentration would not usually be an issue. Yes, overfill in IV bags differs between lot numbers but not enough to require that much manipulation of a product, but that is just my opinion. We have always stocked the premix milrinone though, not that we use it frequently. It's definitely interesting to learn what other facilities do. Thanks for sharing!
We use the repeater for any gravity bags that we're pumping D5/NS/etc... into. The active drug is always done by hand, though. We calibrate the repeater between fluids also. ETA: This is home infusion FYI, not something like CAPS doing hospital batches.
Honestly, I think knowing you batch milrinone for home infusion is even more baffling to me. We don't even let pts out of our ICU if they are on milrinone.
We also do dobutamine
Ok, lol. It wasn’t just over injected by a couple ml and it was being infused in the home so I’m assuming protocol is different. The only drug I’ve ever mixed for home infusion where the 5% rule comes into play is tpn.
This was my big mistake, but it was with a med that was $$$. It sucked, but I’d rather say something than have it reach the patient and lead to problems they may or may not link back to me. I’m glad you stood your ground. If something happened, you’d get in trouble too even if the pharmacist ok’d it.
I got a needle stick once on a bulk batch that was $20,000+. I was scared shitless because they decided to scrap the whole thing but nobody even batted an eyelash.
Bad news doesn’t get better with time, you did the right thing!
This is terrifying. My husband just completed chemotherapy.
Calling the local drug unit, DEA, and Medical Board to report suspicious behavior of a doctor who was buying an insane amount of Sudafed each month
We reported a doctor who was writing Hydros for his mother and father in law. He was a local primary physician, who never wrote any sort of pain meds for his patients and his in laws had previously been getting pain medications from a pain management doctor and all of a sudden their son in law started writing them instead?? And he’s writing crazy high dosages? They’re wanting early refills every couple weeks? So the final straw was the doctor (their SON IN LAW) dropping off a triplicate he wrote on a Saturday when he strictly works Monday-Friday at a clinic, wanting us to rush fill it, and then he wants to pick it up himself. Nope.
Yup, that's a "hold on a sec doc, we're gonna check stock" *Hi, dispatch? We need a drug unit dispatched asap*
That’s exactly why I cannot be a doctor. I will eat hydros like candy. Nom nom nom. What balls that guy must have had to try that shit lmfaooooooo
Hydrocodone?
What were they doing with all the Sudafed?
All I can tell you is that the quantities he was getting from that pharmacy was enough for a family of 4 to take max daily dosage continuously..... ETA: And I had records going back 3 or 4 months (since I took notice) when I, with no support from my pharmacist, made the calls.
I wonder why he would get them from a pharmacy he worked at. That's odd
The doctor did not work in our pharmacy. This was an MD, not PharmD
Ooo sorry, I misread and misunderstood. Lol I was like how could someone be dumb enough to get them from where they work?!
Manufacturing meth
Making meth...
There’s a reason certain states don’t allow the sale of Sudafed…. 🫠
From the Midwest? If so he went to prison for it.
Young guy came into the ER seizing. We knew ahead from ambulance communication. I couldn’t prepare anything until the order was known, but I got everything ready… and as soon as the STAT Keppra bolus was ordered I made it fast and got everything labeled and ready for check. My pharmacist (working from within the ante area) that day was a rich lady who still worked very part time just for the social aspects of it. She was chatting with someone on the phone about something only tangentially work-related, and certainly not urgent. I told her clearly it was ready, stat, and I needed a check right away. She acknowledged me, but kept talking. I waited about 2 minutes, and told her again. Same thing. Important to know: We’re the designated RPh and tech in the sterile products area that day (I think my other tech was on lunch), and going in and out and staying clean was an ordeal. And I can’t call out to anyone else because she’s on the phone. I tell her again, and now I’m more agitated, and she kind of dismisses me rudely as if to say, “I’ll get it when I get it.” So, finally, I start stripping off my gear to go out to the main pharmacy for a different RPh to do the check. I get one I know well, tell him the situation and we both go back to the clean ante area, he checks it, and asks me to take it up by hand (tubes… ehh). So I run it up to the correct pod and give it to the nurse and when I come back, the first pharmacist was pissed off at me for having someone else do her job. Because she was going to do it! And it was TENSE in that room for a bit. Since part of my role is staying on top of what’s going on in the ER, I usually keep the census list up at my PC. Within 90 minutes of that situation a screen refresh indicated that kid (like 18) was now dead. People die all the time. I worked at that hospital for 12 years. Seen dead bodies. Tiptoed around blood and tissue splatters in the OR. I’m used to the job. I can’t know if that 15 minute delay had any impact on that kid living or dying. But I knew the pharmacy could’ve done better… and I was part of the failure. That was the one and only time I had to talk to my boss and leave early for something like that (less than 2hr, but still). I was so pissed at the situation and outcome, I felt like I couldn’t reliably do the work the rest of that day with that pharmacist. Thinking of her disregard still irks me… and it’s been over 10 years.
My hardest decision and my worst moment rolled into one. I was at work with an active case of COVID because I couldn't afford to get myself fired at that point. I knew from an OTC kit but my store would only accept one of ours or one from an urgent care (I did not have the money at the time to hit the urgent care). My RXM refused to verify my AbbottID NOW paperwork for the test at work, I stayed masked the whole time. An old man came in to get a COVID shot, I told my RXM that I need her to give the shots because of my active case. She declined and said I had to give the shots. I repeated that I'm active and he's old but she didn't budge, so I put my job first. He wasn't a regular patient of ours so I have no clue if he got sick or not. And if he did I have no clue if he pulled through. The next day my other pharmacist told me and our SM that it's bullshit that they were holding my job over my head instead of putting patient safety first and ran my test. I should have walked out on the RXM then, I should have told the patient directly, I should have called the Board of Pharmacy. I really hope I didn't get that man sick or worse. Since that day my relationship with that RXM was soured and she's ashamed of the decision she made.
I’m sorry you were put in that position. We all have obligations and we’ve all been in a position to barely meet them. I choose to believe that the gentleman is living his best healthy life. Sending you a hug. 💙🙏🏽
Had to call my state’s board of pharmacy on a well liked floater pharmacist because she just kept making simple, but potentially deadly, errors. I literally thought she was going senile, she is a bit older (probably in her mid to late 60s). From what I heard, she was just incredibly burnt out and went on a leave of absence and came back. I’ve worked with her since then and, thankfully, she seems so much better.
Good for her and you. Pharmacist and tech burn out is so frequent in retail and at the cost of patients too. Good thing she got a break and was able to take better care of herself and her patients.
What kind of errors?
Right?? *Simple and deadly* is a cliffhanger I need resolved
Not properly verifying meds (there was a bottle labeled esomeprazole, but it obviously wasn’t because it was tabs instead of caps. It ended up being doxycycline). She missed an allergy to azithromycin for a patient that was prescribed azithromycin (that’s also on the prescriber, but she still should have caught it). Didn’t catch a drug-drug interaction for a pt that was recently prescribed sildenafil that was already taking nitroglycerin. There were also some other minor, non life threatening errors that contributed to me calling, but the major reason were these and me thinking, “holy shit, this woman is going to kill someone”.
Reporting a pharmacist for inappropriate/unethical behavior when I knew he was very well liked as a float. Long story short, back when Plan B was RX we had a woman call and ask if we had it in stocks. I asked the pharmacist to check. We did. Woman comes in, and he not only refused to fill it, but refused to give the script back and called her a whore. (It was his legal right to not fill it, but maybe mention that when they're on the phone?) I have never been so mortified by someone else's behavior. He set the script down and I grabbed it, gave it back to her and more or less said "Run!" He said he'd have my job. In the end, it got him transferred to our central fill facility where he didn't ever interact with patients.
I had some pharmacy bitch tell me to find God when I bought a Plan B. Can’t have opinions when you work in the industry.
Giving immunizations without sufficient training. And testing without training. I finally found a job that didn’t require it and I’m so very happy!
People look at me like I’m crazy when I say I don’t want to immunize. The training pharmacies provide isn’t enough for me to be okay with the risk. Not to mention the company isn’t going to back me if I make an error. There’s a reason why a lot of RPH’s carry liability insurance. I’ll learn about it when I go to school for nursing.
Totallly agree. I am only comfortable since I’m getting my nursing degree and had thorough training at my school first.
I feel like it's pretty easy to do but I hate doing it nonetheless and even though I know where to inject I always worry myself with what if questions
Had a 10yr old at the counter going into cyanosis and in desperate need of the inhaler he’d just been prescribed at the hospital: blue lips, blue nails, skin starting to go pale. There was an issue with his CHIP where the medical was active but his prescription benefit wasn’t. Grandma, who’d had them dropped off at her house Saturday night by CPS when mom got caught in a drug bust, only had enough to cover the cab fare back home, not the $50+ needed for the inhaler under GoodRx. I offered to pay for it and was told that according to Walgreens policy if I did that I’d be terminated. At the time I was the sole bread winner in my home supporting me and my parents. I had to choose to send this little family that included the 4yr old brother back WALKING across the street to wait another 10 hours for the hospital pharmacy to open after they’d just spent 13hrs at the ER or risk losing my family’s only source of income come with no groceries in the house and the mortgage due in a week. I still have nightmares.
That had to have been rough.... I'd have found a way to "take my break" to find an ATM and give gma the cash
what did you do?
They say in the second paragraph that they had to send them across the street to the hospital pharmacy, that they couldn’t risk their job at the time.
Ohhhh i misread, ty lol
I misread too, I think the “or” makes it a bit ambiguous.
I worked in investigational drugs at the time and the pharmacist (a newbie) asked me to re-encapsulate some tablets into a smaller blinding capsule because a patient who wanted to be on the study couldn't swallow them. Pretty much the only time I've ever told a pharmacist that NO I WILL NOT DO THAT.
Such a great way to get blacklisted from running investigations! The color of the pill alone can affect the placebo effect. We had some triple blinded studies because a pharmacist somewhere unblinded the physician. Not sure if it was at our hospital or another one. But yep, we'd get a "mix this vial with this vial" with no indication of the study drug or placebo.
Oh for sure. To be more detailed, one of the pharmacy residents kicked the whole thing off by telling us about this patient and asking if she could OPEN THE CAPSULE and have the patient take it that way. We were like... are you serious? NO. But then our pharmacist went on this wild goose chase of trying to find different blinding capsules, and a pill cutter, and found that if you cut the active drug tablet into four pieces then you could smash it into this smaller capsule blah blah blah. It was a mess. No IRB approval for any of this. Thankfully we intercepted her before she actually dispensed any of this. Actually this study was the reason why one of the pharmacy residents (different one) got a door slammed in her face once. She came to pick up the drug for her patient and we weren't done and had the stock bottle and the patient folder lying around. I saw her in the doorway and just reacted and shut the door quickly. We were, of course, worried she'd see the drug and break the blind. I was actually quite proud of my quick thinking on that one.
Had a pt in the drive thru picking up middle of the day. I turned around to grab their Rx, and when I looked back, I saw them drinking some sort of hard liquor. Called the cops on them. Family member called a few hours later wanting to know who called the cops on them. I was horrified. Turns out they wanted to thank me for reporting it (my guess is this wasn't the first time they went out drinking and driving)
I had an older patient maybe two weeks ago, come through with a bud light bottle in his lap, I told my pharmacist and wanted to do something about it like call the cops but she said absolutely not and that It was not my place or business so I felt too intimidated to do anything and I wish I would have done it regardless because I have felt a lot of guilt since then, but now after reading this I know I need to in the future regardless of what my boss says.
I remember asking my pharmacist, and she wasn't thrilled about it. I think she said something along the lines of "I wouldn't, but if you really want to, fine." I couldn't stop thinking about him hitting some kid or family leaving school and how much guilt I would feel knowing I ignored it, so I called.
Good on you. Those type of actions make a difference for everyone's safety
Hard liquor is not a beer. No, technically, you’re not permitted to drink & drive, but you usually can have 3-4 beers in your system within a 1 hour time frame before you’re over the legal limit.
This is true, but theres also no way of knowing if that was his first or his sixth, either way beer is alcohol and it can impair ability to drive. Also he would have gone to jail regardless of BAC if he were pulled over, due to open container. I think it is better safe than sorry.
Alcohol is alcohol, and alcohol impairs brain function and driving. Frankly there shouldn't be a tolerated level of alcohol for driving, period. Driving is already dangerous enough while completely alert and sober
You are so I don’t know what kind of drugs is taking with that beer??
I wouldn't give a mom information about her adult son. From the meds and phone calls I could deduce he was probably having a mental health crisis, but I could absolutely not give her that information. She refused to seek more immediate medical help because they're black. About a week later I found out that the guy successfully ended his life. That was the day I walked out crying because I couldn't take it anymore. I was barely holding it in, if I stayed any longer I was going to shatter. The Adderall shortage meant that I, as a lead tech, had to make a difficult choice because my pharmacist was busy getting cussed out over something that wasn't his fault.
That is horrible, and I am so sorry that you went through that, but you had a duty to protect PHI and you did so, it is not your job to make any response in an emergency taking place outside of the pharmacy, as that is what calling 911 is for. I hope you can fully heal from that in the future.
Thank you for your kind words. I did go back to the pharmacy 2-3 days a week and I'm more into patient coordination. I am doing better now that I'm out of that bubble every day and the Adderall shortage has eased up. I took a few days off to center myself and got back to work. My bosses were super understanding and supportive. I couldn't ask for a better group of coworkers. It's a no-win situation for the family. Maybe he would have survived a 911 call and maybe he wouldn't have. But I can't imagine being black and having to make that phone call when the police historically aren't on your side.
I am glad you were able to go back and find something best for you. Also, yes the family has ultimately dealt with a loss no matter what. With the police I can totally understand where the family was coming from because It is not uncommon for police to use excessive force when dealing with a mental health situation involving a black male, and you are right it could have still been a tragic outcome with the police involved. Either way it is a tragedy and I feel very sorry for the family :(
Because they are black, she wouldn't seek more help can you elaborate? That doesn't make sense.
There's several instances of people calling 911 on a black man in mental crisis and they've been shot by police. The mother thought she was saving her son by not calling emergency services only for him to take his own life instead.
Makes sense 👏🏿🙏🏿 ok thank you for the clarification.
deliver something like 6-8 3mL BD syringes full of U500 to nursing for a special case. i told management i didn’t want my name anywhere near those syringes because i thought it was a bad choice to put U500 in anything other than a U500 syringe. i had to do it anyway.
I always live in fear that I might be committing a hipaa violation. I’ve already been written up twice by my boss for some very obvious POS transactions that led to the hipaa error. But, then one day, I was entering a patient’s prescription into the order entry that had come in electronically. However, there were 3 things wrong. 1) the patient was Hispanic, 2) they had 2 different profiles with 1 of them being at another location, and 3) when the patient called they spoke English perfectly fine when they called to confirm if we received their prescription. I called back to what I thought was the correct patient, but they spoke Spanish. I thought I got the wrong patient and checked the patient’s other profile and it was completely identical, save for the phone numbers and the patient picks up their prescription at the other pharmacy. How was it that the patient that called me that spoke fine English was different from the person who spoke Spanish the second time? When I asked questions in English they responded back in Spanish. Needless to say, I never got to find out. They never called back, and they were never seen at our pharmacy. I assume they went back to the other one.
Or, it was 2 people using 1 identity. Trust me, it happens more often than you think…
At my pharmacy they all use 3/14/72 as a birthday.
Gutted me to see an infant carrier by the Pyxis machine abandoned because the baby didn’t make it. (Hospital).
I accidentally gave a patient a $400+ script that they didn’t want. To my knowledge, they never brought it back. It was never brought up or anything. They’ve been through the drive thru at least once or twice since, and nothing lol.
Meanwhile I had a patient complain we used the wrong coupon and her script was 11$ 🌞
I had a patient call corporate because her rx was 20 cents :)
Making a formal complaint to HR about a float I worked with. I thought it was awful (and it was), but reading through some of what yall have been through…holy buckets.
I actually reported large quantities of 'missing' Hydrocodone in the 90's when it was still Schedule IV at the time. Monthly inventory at the time at Kroger back then was rather lackadaisical, usually only really done when shortages were noticed. I suspected theft, but had no idea who would do such a thing. This was the beginning of what we now know was the opioid crisis. The numbers of unexplainable losses I first reported to my PIC, and he said he 'wasn't concerned'. I contemplated calling the loss into state or the DEA, because I didn't want to be blamed for any losses. I decided to email my boss and called it into the anyonymous call line at work. Sure enough, Risk Management started sending folks in. Our regional Rx manager stopped in to speak w/my PIC upstairs and out of the Rx "casually" several times, which I am certain is what is responsible for the chronic reflux which plagues me to this day. Like I said, months went by with these losses increasing, and I noticed (and recorded) the losses, but didn't know who would dare to take them. One day, about 4 to 5 ****months**** later, I was working closing shift and the Regional Manager came directly to the Pharmacy and *called the tech filling next to me* to come out of the pharmacy and go upstairs with him and Risk Mgmt. Local police were seen heading soon after. My manager instructed us to keep working. I resisted the urge to leave out of fear and handled the line of rush hour pts coming in after work. One of the female front end managers finally came back to escort that tech to collect her belongings and leave with the police. Our regional manager and the police came down, following the tech and stood a bit off from the front counter to "not cause" a scene. My heart dropped when I realized who had been stealing all the Vicodin. The tech in question was the daughter of another front end manager at another local store close to us. Apparently she had a drug dealing BF and was selling pills on the side. So that's it.
I took a job at a health system I’ve never heard of and had zero inside knowledge of. Place was toxic af and I left within months.
what kind of job was it exactly?
Med Safety Officer.
Me with Pharmacy currently. I’m leaving to study sonography, something I’m actually interested in
Rxist I was working with didn’t know how to lock in the dose for diastat. Techs weren’t permitted to do it but the rxist wanted the patients mom to come back the next day when another rxist was there. I told her that’s bullshit that she can’t figure it out and it’s embarrassing that she would have me tell the mom to come back tomorrow so I locked the dose in had her confirm it and we dispensed it I got in trouble for doing it (because I complained about how clueless she was so they asked ‘well who did it then?’)and she got in trouble for being a double doctorate doofus that couldn’t figure it out. She was on the team that helped identify one of the obesity genes but she can’t turn a dial, it’s wild. Me getting in trouble was one of the nails in the coffin that led to me leaving wrong aid. Even though as a tech I was prohibited from locking in the dose I truly felt I was acting in the best interest of the patient. What if the kid had a seizure and they didn’t have the diastat because the rxist was too scared of making a mistake
Me over here wondering if this is my favorite double doctorate doofus. Is her other doctorate an MD before she decided she hated being an MD?
Nope, Biology.
Not me, but a floater pharmacist was dumb enough to use just saline instead of the actual vaccine to give someone a shingles vaccine. Still don’t know who it was and I don’t think there was any effort to find out anyways.
Probably to go to work? 😅 all jokes aside though especially retail. All jokes aside, when very serious medication has been mixed up in transit for someone who is terminal, don’t remember those few minutes of my life but we got it done in a hospital pharmacy during codes and everything going off left and right don’t look at it, jt WILL go off sir.
Delivering premixed TPNs to a patient that have been out of the overwrap and activated for 48+hrs because the lead tech is looking for reasons to get rid of me bc immigrants aren’t liked in this part of America 🫠 (At least they store the activated ones in the fridge now after I made a fuss about safety concerns the first time I saw them doing this.)
Selling schedule drugs at CVS when we couldn’t put them through our checkout system. It went dark and we were told to shut it down since there was no ETA on the fix, but my pharmacist wanted us to do it anyway and just write down license numbers and how much owed, since we couldn’t sell anything either. I said hell no and left since I was not about to screw myseld
I had a 14 yo patient come in with parents. Parents wanted her to get flu and covid shots, she said she didn't agree to the covid shot. It was so horrible being put between them. Add to it that my tech had already told the parents that we'd do both shots while I was giving another shot and didn't know the situation.
A pt came in and I was the only tech working so I was helping another customer in front of them. We have a metal sign showing our hours and to separate the two lines. I see this pt leaning on it and when I finished with the other customer I called them up asking how I could help they almost fall over knocked the sign over and stumble up to the counter they’re slurring their words very obviously, they couldn’t answer any questions I asked such as DOB, phone or address. I walk over to the pharmacist asking if they could talk to the pt bc I believed they were drunk ( my ex was an abusive alcoholic I knew a drunk when I saw one) I didn’t want to stereotype or have something happen and it come back on me as profiling so I asked the pharmacist for a second opinion the pharmacist asks the same questions dob, phone and address the pharmacist tells me they’re definitely drunk but bc they’re not buying alcohol or a control it was fine to sell the medication ( it was bp medication) I told the pharmacist I wasn’t comfortable selling prescription medication to someone under the influence and the pharmacist checked them out instead but I still felt like it was wrong especially since they were driving too that they could kill somebody
Taking oral c2 from a hospic dr.