Incentive Scheme at CVS Found Linked to Pharmacy Errors
It's everyone's biggest nightmare – popping a couple of pills for an ordinary ailment, and discovering later in your hospital emergency room, that the problem could be traced to pharmacy error at your local store. Now, a troubling report by WCNC points to an incentive scheme at North Carolina's biggest chain pharmacy as the cause of a growing number of errors at the franchise.
The company in question is CVS, which has the highest number of stores – 285 of them - in the state out of all the nationwide chains. According to the report, the distinction with other chains doesn't quite end there. CVS also has the highest number of citations from the North Carolina Pharmacy Board for prescription errors. In fact, the Board has repeatedly cited the chain for creating a work environment in which employees are likely to make mistakes.
Regular customers who get their prescriptions filled at CVS are noticing the difference in service, the report says. Staff members often seem to be in a hurry to rush through prescriptions. It's not simply a desire to squeeze more out of their workday that's behind this high speed work environment. As the report points out, the company has incentive systems in place that reward employees based on the volume of prescriptions they fill. In fact, CVS pharmacists routinely receive updates on the amount of extra cash they stand to make depending on how quickly they can fill bottles with pills.
The extent to which CVS has been able to continue this practice unchecked, is shocking. Consider these statistics – the Board of Pharmacy stipulates 150 as the number of prescriptions that can safely be filled by a pharmacist in a single day. At CVS, some former employees have gone on record to claim that on a busy day, it's not unusual for pharmacists to fill as many as 500 prescriptions.
In one complaint of pharmacy error against CVS that was filed with the Board, a pregnant woman took home what she thought was anti-morning sickness medication from her local Salisbury CVS store. Only, it turned out to be a drug that's prescribed for patients with spinal injuries. When the Board investigated the number of prescriptions that were filled on the day of the potentially tragic mistake – a common practice when pharmacy errors are reported – it was found that the pharmacist responsible had filled 513 prescriptions on that particular day.
CVS itself sees nothing wrong with the speed at which prescriptions are filled at its stores. According to a spokesperson, certain speed is necessary in "specific defined circumstances." The blasé attitude at CVS towards the concerns of the Board and the public, as well as the company's focus on volume and profits at the cost of patient safety, is appalling. But it's far from an isolated case. The push for profits over safety is common to most of the major nationwide pharmacies. The kind of prescription errors that result when pharmacists are counting the dollars that will be chalked up on their incentive sheets, instead of focusing on the name of the medication they are filling out, should be a cause for worry, not only for pharmacy error lawyers, but also consumers.
