Last Friday we saw an ENT for Matthew's ears. He had a ruptured eardrum in early December that hadn't healed by his 2 year check-up in early January so the pediatrician wanted an ENT to look at it. Well the ENT wrote us a script. That evening we took it to the pharmacy to be filled. The pharmacist questioned the potency of the antibiotic and said that at Matthew's age it seemed WAY too high. He asked what Matthew weighed and when we told him he refused to fill the script. He said he needed to talk to the doctor before filling it. That's fine...I appreciate him questioning things if they don't seem right to him. I called our pediatrician's office to ask them about it (they are open on Saturdays) and they said it sounded too high to them also, and that the pharmacist must be misreading it. I know a lot of doctors don't write legibly, but the pharmacist said the number to me & that's exactly how I would have read it too. Pedi told me to wait until I could speak to the ENT to have it filled.
Well, the doctor's office was closed Monday for MLK Day, and then I LOST the script! Yeah, couldn't find it anywhere. I figured it being late getting filled wasn't a huge issue since Matthew is showing no signs of his ears bothering him and apparently they've been an issue since the infection in December. If I hadn't found it by today I was going to call the ENT and request a new one. Anyway, I found it. I called them today to question it, and after waiting on hold for a while, they told me the script was definitely wrong. No apology, no anything...I asked how serious it would have been if the pharmacist hadn't questioned it, and had just filled it. The response..."well everyone makes mistakes." NO WAY! That is NOT acceptable! I realize that everyone does make mistakes, but as a freaking doctor, you should check and double check that what you are writing down is correct. People's LIVES are in your hands.
I am so thankful the pharmacist was on the ball & questioned the doctor. But it made me think, the location we usually use has messed things up before (telling us to use 4x per day when the doctor said 3x...and I called the doctor back to verify!) so what if we had gone to that location & they had just filled it?!? What could have happened to him? Scary, huh?
So here's a friendly (although upset right now just pondering the what ifs) reminder to ALWAYS make sure you can read the script before you leave the doctor's office, ALWAYS question that it is correct, and ALWAYS compare what the doctor tells you plus the information on the written script to what the pharmacy actually GIVES you!
I am so thankful that we had a pharmacist who questioned things! I don't think we'll return to this ENT for tubes...
Friday, January 25, 2008
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3 comments:
I would be fuming!! Thank God for that pharmacist. I wouldn't be going back to that ENT either.
I've been meaning to comment since you put this one up. Once time with Allison's horrible history of ear infections, I got some meds. Dropped them off at like 3:45pm thru drive through and they said it would be an hour. I go take the sick girl home and when my hubby got home a little before 5, I headed back up to pick up the meds. By the time it's my turn, I'm told the same thing. I was pissed. (and thankful).
Yes, I'm glad we didn't overdose my kid. But damn it, you could have at least SCANNED the Rx when I gave it to you and then we could have called the dr's office when they were still open. So my kid had to go another 12 hours without antibitotics on board, and as a mother you know it takes about 24 hours on an antibiotic to start feeling better. I was seething. Ass.
good thing the pharmacist caught it. i might be switching ent's after that. my husband is a internal medicine/pediatric resident and he's worked shifts at the hospital for over 37 hrs straight with no sleep, so there are definite possibilites for mistakes. it's always good to ask lots of questions and make sure you understand and call if you need. an ENT should be better than that though, they have to be top of the class smart and very hard working to even get into an ENT residency, so i would look for a new one.
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