Has anyone ever had a similar situation happen before at CVS? ( Wrong medication -wrong amount received) (twice in one day)

Submitted by EconomySeaweed7693 t3_10xd886 in massachusetts

So my sister picked up the medications for my entire family today , I'm not gonna say which specific CVS, but I will say it is in the Lowell area, and my mom takes 1,000 mg Metformin and she normally receives 2 vials of 90. It says on the side 90/180 printed to confirm that.

I prepay for it for them , not a large dollar amount so its not an issue, and I have had an issue with CVS claiming they gave my mom a prescription when they never did years ago, so I have my parents send me a photo of all the scripts they pick up when they leave. Today , she only received 1 vial of metformin which she told me she thought was odd, and she never opened the prescription bag and you can clearly see in the photo there is 1 vial not 2 and she opens it up and there's only 90/180 confirmed by the side of the vial. She went to CVS an hour ago and told the pharmacist and the pharmacist got angry at my mother. Told her are you sure the missing vial is not at home, and you did not drop it somewhere. I sent her the photo clearly showing theres only 1 vial in the bag , not 2 , and the pharmacist does not apologize or anything and just walks away and goes on her computer, and asks for the tech to come over, getting angry at the tech.

Well, I wish that was the end of my CVS fiasco, but my dad goes to open his Eliquis script and he has 2 stock bottles of 2.5 which is the correct dose, and 1 stock bottle of 5 mg and I'm like how can this possibly happen. How can this happen twice in one day and surely I can't be the only one ?

Does anyone else have similar experiences? I went to talk to my local Walgreens pharmacist that I know and I talk to , and he said CVS virtual verifies (what does that mean?) and the pharmacist clearly was not doing her job correctly because if she verified it correctly, that situation would not happen.

He also that CVS also skeleton staffs its pharmacies,(same with Walgreens) making it impossible for pharmacists to do their job correctly , and issues are bound to happen.

To be honest, I have had terrible experiences with both CVS and Walgreens, and I'm just wondering if this has happened to anyone else. I usually pick up certain pharmacy items at Costco Pharmacy because of their better prices, but they don't have the most convenient hours, and going to Nashua from Lowell, when you don't have to is inconvenient.

Are the supermarket pharmacies better, and are there any good independents in that area?

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76Introvert t1_j7ro0gu wrote

I have a prescription for 9 migraine pills for 30 days. CVS once filled it for 30 pills. It was great because my migraines were fixed for quite some time. Didn’t bother going back to tell them. Reverse insurance karma.

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squibtater t1_j7wb0k8 wrote

I also have a prescription for 9 migraine pills and the last time I picked it up at CVS they only gave me six. When I called them back, they looked at the computer and immediately were able to tell that they messed it up and we’re almost goofy about it. They told me I could come pick up the other three tablets and to just let the pharmacy counter person know, and they would just pass them to me, it sounded super weird, so I never went back to get them.

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GetUpTheMountains t1_j7x7yqa wrote

> migraine pills

Could you be more specific? Friend of mine suffers from them and she said docs told her to just suffer through them. Would love to hip her to medicine if it's available.

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76Introvert t1_j7xch6s wrote

Sumatriptan - generic version of Imitrex. Works wonders for me. I believe my migraines are triggered by weather/change in pressures. I went so long suffering hours and days with migraines with no relief. Went to a doctor about 15 years ago and got me on it. I take half a pill when I feel one coming on. I know one is coming even before the headache part starts. Within an hour I have relief. Insurance only covers 9 pills for 30 days, 100mg. Against medical advice, I split them in half to give me more relief beyond the insurance mandated 9 migrants. Works just the same. I would recommend it to anyone suffers from migraines. I do know it doesn't work for everyone. Some people have different symptoms during their migraine episodes.

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GetUpTheMountains t1_j7xcrx6 wrote

Really appreciate you taking time to answer. I will pass that on to her. Thank you.

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squibtater t1_j7zsvl4 wrote

I use Rizatriptan, generic maxalt. I like it because it has a fast acting melt version you put under your tongue. It tastes kinda bad but in my experience does actually work faster than the regular tablets (which still work pretty quickly for me too).

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mrmackster t1_j7rq7el wrote

I switched to Amazon pharmacy because all the local pharmacies (CVS, Walgreens, etc) are all a dumpster fire right now. Poor pay, not enough techs, everyone is overworked. It’s just a recipe for disaster.

Bonus if you are a prime member, they give you discounts of meds, some months I actually pay less as a prime member than I would with my insurance copay.

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Quincyperson t1_j7s8duy wrote

No. But one time I bought a house and it was not disclosed to me that there was a termite infestation in the walls and in the moldings so I had to take it upon myself to call my own termite extermination company and when the guys showed up they immediately asked me if they could use my bathroom and then for the next two hours they take turns going in and out of there taking huge mud pies and over flushing. And then they go in there together and hear a bunch of scrounging around and then you hear a bunch of yelling and one of them is standing in the bathroom doorway shouting at you that his friends foot is stuck in the toilet and he says “Help him you gotta help him” and when you go in there to help him he just pulls it out easily and laughs because his foot wasn’t stuck. It wasn’t stuck at all he was just faking it. And then they get really serious and they say “It’s turbo time!”. And they start running around the house as fast as they can and start jumping over the couches. But when you try and jump in they yell at you and say “you’re not part of the turbo team! Don’t run! You don’t run with us. We’re the ones that run! Until you’re part of this turbo team, you don’t run. Walk! Slowly!”

So you go lie down to be by yourself and read your art books. But then on accident you went into your bathroom and it looked like the hole in your toilet head shrunk. And you said “How could that be? There’s no way they could have shrunk the toilet”. And then you saw in the trash the receipt from Home Depot for a toilet the exact same size as yours but with a choke hole that’s just for farts. They replaced your toilet with a fart toilet. And now you can’t take a dump in your house cause your toilet can’t suck them down and now you feel sick to your stomach.

Has that ever happened to you?

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Graflex01867 t1_j7sg3b5 wrote

Actually, it’s very likely to happen twice in one day. The same tech probably filled both prescriptions, and it sounds like that tech was having issues processing some orders/combinations of multiple bottles/dosages.

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Mindless_Arachnid_74 t1_j7sgw5d wrote

If this happened to be on Bridge St in Lowell- that pharmacy has become a dumster fire. The keep losing prescriptions that are sent in and I have had wrong ones filled multiple times even after confirming in person which one I refilling/picking up.

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EconomySeaweed7693 OP t1_j7snbro wrote

Can confirm it was NOT Bridge St. in Lowell but nearby. That location was absolutely crazy. Went there months ago and the place was idk how to describe it. Most stress inducing place I've been to, I waited 2 hours for my parents meds there.

The pharmacist, I forget her name, was incredibly nice, unlike the pharmacist my parents dealt with today.

Are there any better locations in that area cuz they all seem awful?

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Mindless_Arachnid_74 t1_j7ug63a wrote

Following you on this because Bridge St is no longer 24 hours and my survival strategy was to go at 1am.

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EconomySeaweed7693 OP t1_j7v0bs5 wrote

HOW??????Are they trying to make that place worse? That place needed double the staff hours. Do they have someone filling in the pharmacy at night when its closed?

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pab_guy t1_j7s1o7s wrote

"virtual verifies" means "virtual verification", meaning they take pictures of the filled Rx and a pharmacist verifies based on that, likely working at a computer terminal far away in an office or at home.

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thewhitemanz t1_j7xut99 wrote

Nah, MA requires a RPh to be in the pharmacy to verify stuff. It could’ve been someone at another store bc we have that option now, but it definitely wasn’t someone at home.

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alliknowis___ t1_j83bzuj wrote

There's a new feature they rolled out this year where you can access other stores in your district virtually from your store to help with data entry, insurance rejections, and verification.

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thewhitemanz t1_j83m84e wrote

Oh yeah I know, but most people pharmacists only use it if they’re asked to by the DL. I guess that might’ve been the case, but if you see something in QV2 while you’re doing air support, you’re supposed to back out of it and move on.

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alliknowis___ t1_j83pn6f wrote

Or reject it back to production instead of ignoring an error. Regardless I only popped in to mention AS is a thing. I used to do it to help other stores when I had time to kill during overnights, but now with tech hour cuts that's a thing of the past.

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SharpCookie232 t1_j7skhqi wrote

I'm in a completely different part of MA, but our CVSs have the same troubles. In all fairness, CVS pays them a pittance, insurance coverage is almost impossible to understand (for them and for the insured), and we're still in multiple pandemics (RSV, COVID, flu) even though the government says it's all over and we need to get back to work. So it sucks, but I do feel for them. Maybe you could try mail order? Also, just want to note that with your dad's pills you could just cut them in half, right?

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mikemerriman t1_j7sllja wrote

CVS has been horrible for the past year at least. Slow as hell Inaccurate. Won’t even answer the phone unless you wait 30 min. The deserve to go under

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EconomySeaweed7693 OP t1_j7smu8p wrote

is there any CVS in that area that is ok? My parents used to go to Bridge St-Lowell but it was atrociously bad. Never answered phones, were 2 days behind in filling scripts, employees would quit during their shifts.

They switched to another location that is still in rough shape, and one day one of their meds was not in stock so they had to drive to the one 20 minutes away, that was as bad as Bridge St.

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kingsaget_ t1_j7rvtxb wrote

I fuck people’s orders up at my coffee shop so maybe I wouldn’t be a good pharmacist. Even though I am technically distributing a stimulant.

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lostmindplzhelp t1_j7sij9f wrote

Not very similar but I have a CVS story too.

Back when it was still kinda hard to schedule a covid booster shot, I used that state website for finding appointments. The only thing available in my area was an appointment at CVS, at like 2am on December 31. I thought that was weird but I knew it was a 24h CVS and I was able to make it so I booked the appointment. When I showed up there was just one guy working the pharmacy and he kinda protested when I said I was there for my vaccine. He said it was the middle of the night, he was the only one there, and the computers were about to shut down. I held my ground and said I had an appointment. He hurriedly entered my info on his computer and gave me my shot.

All in all it was a success but I live in a small town where nothing is open late so it felt pretty surreal. I don't know if the appointment was a glitch in the website or what, he acted like nobody ever shown up for a shot that late.

The other weird thing is if you pick up a prescription for a pet you have to tell them your pets date of birth and it has to match the one the vet told them when they filed the prescription. It was kinda funny telling them "He's a cat. He was born in a barn. He doesn't have a birth certificate." but also very frustrating to get turned away for forgetting what made up birthday my vet had used.

In my experience the Walmart, Stop and Shop, and independent pharmacies were much more organized and efficient, and the employees were relaxed. The ones at CVS are always stressed out and disorganized. Some of the techs were really sweet but shopping there was so aggravating.

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pleasedtoseedetrees t1_j7tyoe8 wrote

I worked for a vet for years and used to have to call CVS's all the time to tell them to just give the damn medication to the owner because nobody knows the dogs birthday.

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alliknowis___ t1_j83c706 wrote

It's a flaw with the computer system where standard option is name and date of birth to look up a profile. Phone number works too but techs forget that's an option.

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lostmindplzhelp t1_j8557yo wrote

Hahaha that makes it even worse. They just forget and make a big deal about having to call the vet and get all 3 parties to agree on a pet birthday?

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Particular-League902 t1_j7tgd79 wrote

The people at r/pizzaisnotworking are actively trying to make much needed changes to try to improve conditions. You may want to reach out to them.

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MrHodgeToo t1_j7u4nhi wrote

I’ve enjoyed and had good luck using a Stop and Shop pharmacy. Only challenge is their limited hours.

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RiverRATT65 t1_j7rqo6y wrote

I go to a small local pharmacy that is connected to Health Mart. I never have any problems at all. I was sick of CVS running out of meds, giving the wrong amounts, saying prescriptions were ready and they were not when I got there.

I have no idea what virtual checking is, other than maybe holding the bottle up with pills to a screen and being checked by a pharmacist somewhere else?

Politicians need to stop being allowed to fill their pockets by big pharma and the insurance companies so those in the medical field can do their job the way they were trained. They cut so many corners, it is unsafe for everyone.

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verba_antiqua_amo t1_j7rr7em wrote

Try an independent or grocery store pharmacy that does fewer scripts. You could also report those mistakes to cvs corporate cause it's very bad if they are putting two different strengths of something in the same bottle.

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mmmsoap t1_j7swrl9 wrote

CVS (and other big brand retail pharmacies) are pretty well known for being very short staffed, and paying under trained employees very poorly to handle your medication. Generally, they suck, but they get your business by brand recognition and being open longer hours. You will have much better service if you can find a local independent pharmacy, as they often have their pharmacists actually on site. Since everything is insurance anyway, the cost of your prescriptions shouldn’t really change, but it is more expensive and less convenient to try shipping while there.

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JenRJen t1_j7t488t wrote

Except nowadays there are not very many independent local pharmacies left anywhere.

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Next-Entrepreneur631 t1_j7tzsu2 wrote

When my mom was fighting cancer, she was taking antibiotics while going through chemo. Effing CVS, put a completely wrong medication in the bottle labeled as antibiotic. They gave her heart burn medicine instead. Thank god I realized something wasn’t right as soon as we opened it at home. And no, they didn’t apologize and acted like we tampered with it.

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Cheap_Coffee t1_j7wj1kh wrote

>And no, they didn’t apologize and acted like we tampered with it.

Did you report this to anyone? Giving the wrong medication is a VERY SERIOUS problem and could (would) cost the pharmacist their license.

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Next-Entrepreneur631 t1_j7wkayv wrote

I didn’t unfortunately. I should have but I was young at the time and didn’t know better. This was over 10 years ago now and if I knew then what I know now, I certainly would have!

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rikityrokityree t1_j7u54wa wrote

CVS or any other pharmacy’s accuracy / diligence quality is directly linked to the quality of management and oversight of frontline staff. I have had crazy HIPAA violation worthy experiences at CVS, Walgreens, and RiteAid; at mom and pop pharmacies I have not encountered any issue larger than a delay of a prescription being filled

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twistedredd t1_j7u8q53 wrote

I changed my pharmacy to walmart and will have nothing to do with cvs.

They adjust my meds, say they are out, claim shortages, charge double copays once online and once in the store, super disorganized and the pharmacist is just plain rude.

Had an excellent experience at walmart. Their prices can't be beat and neither can their access to the supply chain due to their volume.

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Deeeeeesee24 t1_j7sqrbj wrote

Do Yourself a favor and transfer your prescriptions to a different pharmacy. The pharmacy should have at least apologized profusely for the mistake they made and it is definitely a risk to give you the wrong medication you can probably report them to the board if you have pic proof . they need to have documented that they gave you the wrong prescription for sure . If they let 2 things slide for you personally in one day then God knows how many other prescriptions they're messing up. It's definitely a liability to keep filling your prescriptions there I would not keep my drugs from my family there

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GalacticP t1_j7t4zvk wrote

Contact corporate and the local board of health. These are serious problems.

I’ve had CVS give me a whole unopened bottle of 100+ pills when I was supposed to get 30. They’ve also failed to mix liquid medication. There is no room for them to be lax about things like this.

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crow_crone t1_j7uivqg wrote

If I made these errors in my nursing practice there would be consequences.

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Particular-League902 t1_j7tf730 wrote

Please file complaints with the State Board of Pharmacy every single time you have any bad issue at a pharmacy. The chains are horrible to work for and are getting worse. Mistakes and terrible mistakes are happening. The Boards of Pharmacy need to do their jobs. You also should consider filing a lawsuit whenever a mistake happens. These chains only care about money not employee or patient welfare. Boards of Pharmacy complaints, lawsuits, and going to the press should be done whenever the situation warrants it. I am a former CVS pharmacist.

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Phuni44 t1_j7u3shl wrote

I switched from CVS to Big Y pharmacy. They close at 7 but this doesn’t matter to me. I also shop there so it’s convenient

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KKay62 t1_j7vcpvm wrote

For maintenance meds like the Metformin and Eliquis, have you tried a mail order pharmacy? The CVS near us (outside of Lowell) is a pain in the butt, not so much filling prescriptions inaccurately, but long lines and constantly pissed off staff and customers. Anything I take regularly I get in the mail from ExpressScripts and have had no problems. They can auto ship so you don't forget/run out.

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Sunbirdsoup t1_j7wnvf4 wrote

I work at another CVS in MA and we’re…. Okay. We’re swamped most days and can’t answer the phone, but the locals have gotten used to it and the tourists just get their attitudes right back at them at this point.

If someone’s nice to me, I’m nice to them, simple as that.

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Amazing_Self5159 t1_j7x18hw wrote

Call CVS corporate and report this. They could kill someone giving them the wrong meds this is crazy

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QueenRotidder t1_j86r0ui wrote

I’ve had a CVS in the same area give me someone else’s meds. I called and told them and they didn’t care.

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Unique-Public-8594 t1_j7sms9n wrote

Why do you choose not to get your prescriptions by mail?

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EconomySeaweed7693 OP t1_j7sn0ru wrote

I prefer to get them in person, and so do my parents, just so I have someone to complain to if something goes wrong. I don't want to deal with mail order in case of a screw up.

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