Whenever you get a prescription filled, you should ALWAYS look it over and count it. If the pharmacist uses a machine to fill the bottles, they sometimes miss fill (not the correct number of pills most of the time under the amount you are paying for). As SVAL said, you can end up with the WRONG medication. If they don't want to make you prescription correctly, you need to get the manager or call the board of pharmacists. The only way the state know about a problem is if it gets reported. Sometimes the drugs will look a little different (if the pharmacist has had to use different generics, but this is something the pharmacist should be able to tell you right away). When it comes to your prescriptions, you are your own best friend.

Many years ago my husband was on Tylenol/Codeine for an injury at work. I got the refill home and was about to give him his pill and noticed there was a different number on the pill. Took it to the drugstore and found out it was about four times stronger than it was supposed to be. The druggist (past retirement age) that filled the prescription took the wrong bottle, and had I not caught it it could have killed my husband. The druggist was the owner of the store, he resigned (not retired) and was in the throes of dementia. From that point on I read every word on the label. They had the description of the pill, color, manufacturer, potency, how many refills were left and we never had a problem after that - probably because I just didn't trust it anymore, I still kept comparing the bottle to the pill. Bubbie, you are soooooo right - You are your own best friend and you have to be your own advocate if you want things done right. Edie

Having worked in a pharmacy, yes, mistakes can happen. There is a multi-check system in place but no one and no machine is infallible. As with everything else, buyer beware and always ask if you are unsure about your meds.

I always check my refills to see if the pills are the same but I usually just dump a couple into my hand and compare to the old ones. Guess I'll be more careful in the future.

Same thing happened to my daughter. She always checks her pills when she gets them, good habit to do

Pharmacies are very sticky about pain meds. The only way they would have admitted the mistake was if you had never left and they saw for their own eyes the discrepancy. There are so many people that misuse pain scripts that they are very suspicious of everyone who gets a pain script filled, unless you are a long-time customer and they know you personally. Even then, they will give you a hard time. Its all about the drug addicts.

Went thru the drive thru once and they handed me a huge bag of diabetic supplies with a huge price tag. I was pickng up my inexpensive thyroid medicine. I sighed relief at the "mistake". Always check your meds etc. mistakes happen.

always check your fast food drive thru order too! LOL!

sandy

And...always check the number of refills on the script VS how many they put on your bottle. I can't tell you how many times they put zero, when, in fact, I have a year's worth.

I picked up a simple prescription and they gave me a blood thinner, lucky I caught it, they apolizied but I changed pharmacy, One time Picked up a liquid for my baby and the dosage wasn't what they Dr had told me ,I called the Dr. and he said that amount would have killed her, all I got from the pharmacist was a simple oops, I"m sorry, You have to be dilligent. Another thing is that print on the bottle is so small I have trouble reading it, I'm sure the elderly can't read it, I've complained but to no avail

Hubs has never gotten the wrong meds, but he has been short-changed several times over the last few years and yesterday was no exception--60 pills short. Fortunately they know us and added the missing pills without any trouble.