How careful are you with the information you are asked to give at the pharmacy?
Whether turning in prescriptions, picking up the filled RX's, or simply talking to the Pharmacist or Pharmacy Techs about your issues revolving around your pain medications, we must be more aware of our surroundings. We need to be safe. Look around you to see if there are people that are within earshot of your conversation.
Many pharmacies ask for your address as verification that the person picking up the prescription is either the patient, or a family member that would know this information.
I personally would rather have them ask for ID. Too many people can hear you recite your address, note it down, and surreptitiously use that address to pick up medications under your name. Sometimes when they ask me for my address, I have a total mind blank, and either have nothing, or have the numbers all messed up. Wouldn't my ID be much safer? For both of us?
We need to protect our medications from being handed out to just anyone who happens to know the address. I have seen many people say loudly as they walk away from the pharmacy counter, that they 'will be back later to pick up those other prescriptions', sometimes even naming the mediation. If anyone is listening, paying attention to these seemingly mundane things, possible problems are looming. The shifts could have changed by the time she returns, and whoever it is that picks up prescriptions for so and so, simply gives the written down address, and walks out with someone else's meds.
I have spoken to my pharmacy about this issue, and although they say they haven't had problems with meds being picked up by others, they did agree that asking for ID would be a good step to implement. It may encroach upon some privacy issues in a negative way--as in the pharmacy then needing a list of authorized people to pick up your medications, and if you send a friend that is not on the list, you can see the potential problems.
Here are a few tips to remember the next time you fill your medications:
1. When turning in your prescriptions, talk in a soft voice, or go somewhere private as possible if discussing exactly what type of medication you are filling. This information is as confidential as your other medical information.
2. Keep an eye out around you. Make note of anyone seeming to listen to your conversation, and move away from them. You deserve privacy at the pharmacy. That is what all the HIPAA papers you are given regarding privacy is all about, and why there are now red lines for people to wait behind, to give the person being serviced the privacy they deserve as much as you.
3. When leaving your RX's with the pharmacy, make sure they have noted everything needed before leaving. This is where your own education comes into play. If you know how to read a prescription, and know what needs to be on it to be processed, you can save a lot of time checking this info BEFORE turning them in to be filled. (I will be writing about reading prescriptions next.)
4. Make sure you are near the phone the pharmacy has on file for you, in between dropping off your prescriptions, and going back at the designated time. If the pharmacy needs to get a hold of you during this time, it is very frustrating for them if you are not available, and will just slow down getting your medications filled.
5. Try to turn in your prescriptions on an earlier day of the week, rather than near the weekends. Most insurance companies do not work over the weekend as far as doing medication authorizations. You don't want your medications sitting around there not being filled--sometimes for days. As careful as pharmacies are, as serious as they are about our information and safety, it is possible to lose things. I like to hand in my RX's, wait there for them, and pick them up the minute they are ready.
6. After you have your medications in hand, and are leaving the pharmacy, pay attention again to your surroundings. There have been many instances of teams of people that are just waiting to distract you as you have the meds in hand, walking out of the pharmacy. Be careful! Be aware!! Make sure to check around you as you get into your car. Walk with authority. These medications are important to your pain management regime, and although a police report from a robbery will help you to get another prescription from your doctor, it is a long and tedious process. Better to be ultra-careful and safe, than unaware and in possible personal harm
YOU are more important than your medications!! If ever faced with the choice to hand over your bag or face something far worse, hand over the meds!! I know that is obvious. Just wanted to remind us all.
Gentle Hugs----
Saturday, October 1, 2011
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I agree with all of this and have done for a long time. Not only that, asking for your address when you are not at home is like an advertisement for a burgular! I have had instances where a dispenser has shouted out to the pharmacist Mrs .... is after her morphine! Umm excuse me and yes I have complained. The other thing we get here is when the pharmacist calls one into a little room for 'privacy' then proceeds to fill out a database with all of your details, medications, medical conditions or NOT as in my case as I asked where this information was to be held and by whom. It had never occured to the pharmacist to ask and she also was intrigued as she also was when I ended up being put through to the legal department at head office of said large chain pharmacy!!! Needless to say my details are not on their database. Although the medical system is different (at the present time) in the UK I have no doubt that a lot of this information is sold on to Insurance Companies etc as the pharmacy concernced also sells these 'services' these days! Before filling in the information (had I done it) on her computer at no time, did I get to read a data protetion document which I would have had to sign etc and this information is not protected as ones notes are (just about still) here in the UK at the GP. Another side of privacy. I would also suggest that all medications are put in the boot of the car out of view of prying eyes. This is not paranoia this is reality. I take some very very potent medications which in the wrong hands...... I have never agreed with giving out my address as a relevant form of identifying myself as you say, anyone could return, with different staff on...... It makes me laugh in a way as some of my medications I have to sign for, as they are DD (locked meds) but no one has ever ever checked the medication agaisnt any form of official ID!
ReplyDeleteGood points, well made.
I meant to say no one has ever checked my signature against any form of official ID with my signature on it, not no one has ever checked the medications agaisnt any form of offical ID, because that just doesn't make sense. lol sorry
ReplyDeleteShauna, I have been in Walgreen's (and other places)and listened to senior citizens give information to the pharmacist loudly, not knowing that there could be people listening. I have heard people talking to their doctors offices and discussing medications, and then casually discussing the details within earshot of others. The drive-thru pharmacy is the worst thing ever implemented. Most stores use a loud speaker that anyone nearby in the store can hear. Verifying address, date of birth, full name and other infomation is certainly not safe for the customer. But in our hurried lifes we don't think of these things. Now, let's talk about mail-order pharmacies...scares me to death that my meds will never make it to my house. But that is another story and another blog my Friend!
ReplyDeleteAs always, a great post with valuable info!
mo
Good advice Shauna, something I never really considered since I use a small pharmacy and they all know me. As soon as I walk in the door they are pulling my prescriptions out for me. I guess this is one advantage of living in a small town.
ReplyDeleteHi tharr I live in a rural community and my pharmacist knows me personally as do most of the staff. Unfortunately it is no longer an independent but part of a big chain. There is also another downside to the everyone knowing me as often whilst I am on first name terms with many other customers I definitely don't want them knowing that my husband and son have epilepsy, my daughter and I have ehlers danlos and the medications I take living as best as I can with EDS. Small towns often have within them those who relish in gossip, so despite the fact I am entitled to take slow release morphine plus other medications, this information can easily be misinterpreted as making something I am not - a registered addict. Due to the small town misinformed gossip mongers around these here parts who may be in the minority but can cause much harm without realising due to their wagging tongues. So whilst I would never swap my location because I love it here in the UK. Shauna's advice applies to me equally as to those in bigger cities! Maybe for different reasons but keeping ones business to onself in small townsville can sometimes particularly in the pharmacy one of the few outlets remaining around here be just the place where ones personal details are not a hot topic! The pharmacist I must say is the epitome of discrection itself, familiarity however because some of the dispensers etc have known me for over 25 years is another matter and recently one had to be gently admonished by the pharmacist for her gross break of data protection information on my behalf concerning the announcement as described above! A drive-thru pharmacy is something I have never heard of I am so ignorant of them I am not even sure they exist here in the UK. The very thought of them sends me reeling!
ReplyDeleteShauna you have created a great talking point can't wait for the next tips.
Hoping you are as well as can be expected. Gentle hug.
Hi Shauna, I have been searching the internet for exactly this issue and I am glad that I found it. Thank you. Having been the privacy officer at a healthcare facility, I am shocked that my full name can be called over the PA system and that they ask for my name and address within 2 feet of customers waiting for their prescriptions. I complained about my full name and told them that I do not want it called over the PA. They now call only the last name. Unfortunately, HIPAA allows them to do so. I have asked them on several occasions to ask for my ID and they do not. So, when the ask for my name and address, I hand them my license. Then, if you can believe it, they repeat it out loud. Office of Civil Rights is for non-HIPAA transaction related issues and I will be contacting them as well as my pharmacy. Thank you for this site, I wish you well and will check in often.
ReplyDeleteThis is such an interesting post. Especially because it's an issue that many people are not aware of. Thanks so much for sharing!
ReplyDeleteNice post. We are impressed by your clear description of your topic. Thanks for the information. Keep on writing.
ReplyDeletePharmacies who provide efficient pharmacy management services should just ask for an ID so that their client could avoid spouting out information which could be gathered by other people and in the worst case, lead to identity theft.
ReplyDelete