Would disclosing error rates help reduce errors?
Hartford Courant columnist George Gombossy tells the story of a Southington, CT. man who, after recieving the wrong medication from his local CVS, complained to the company about the mistake. Gombossy went a step further, and asked CVS how often its pharmacies made medication errors. The response from the company was vague at best:"All I was able to get from the CVS spokesman, Michael J. DeAngelis, were general claims, none of which he could prove or provide statistics to support.
"Our error rate is a small fraction of 1 percent that continues to decline," DeAngelis said.
What does that mean, I asked. Considering that CVS fills 580,000,000 prescriptions a year, a fraction of 1 percent error rate could mean thousands, if not tens of thousands, of mistakes. He refused to be more specific."
In his search to find out more about pharmacy error rates, Gombossy
learned some surprising statistics about his local pharmacy chains:
Articles about pharmacy errors such as this one fail to highlight the root cause of many pharmacy mistakes - policies at retail pharmacy chains that incentivize speed over patient safety and other "fast-food pharmacy" policies.
It is time for pharmacists to speak out to draw attention to harmful corporate policies that hurt pharmacists and patients.
Read the full article at the Hartford Courant.
Consumer Protection Commissioner Jerry Farrell Jr., whose agency regulates pharmacists in Connecticut, said he receives a few complaints about prescription mixups each year from patients, doctors and hospitals. For instance, he received 19 complaints against CVS pharmacists last year. Walgreens and Rite Aid had seven each, Wal-Mart had four and Target had one.Disclosing pharmacy error rates may or may not help reduce their occurence, but it will certainly make consumers more aware that the bottle they open might not contain the right medication.
Articles about pharmacy errors such as this one fail to highlight the root cause of many pharmacy mistakes - policies at retail pharmacy chains that incentivize speed over patient safety and other "fast-food pharmacy" policies.
It is time for pharmacists to speak out to draw attention to harmful corporate policies that hurt pharmacists and patients.
Read the full article at the Hartford Courant.
My name is Ray Funatsu and I've been a pharmacist since 1963. In '74 I started working as a manager with Sav-on until '94; that's when I stepped down because it got to be a little too much. I worked until 2000 and retired and now I'm on-call.
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