Pharmacy Canceled My Anti-Depressant Prescription I Ended Up At The Er

[Tbird]

Pharmacy canceled my anti-depressant prescription I ended up at the ER. I went to psych doc on Tues got my refill for my anti-depressant I had been out for a couple of days, because my prescription ran out before my appointment and I didn't think to call the nurse and have it reordered. So the doc reordered it on Tuesday and I though no problem it will be here by Thursday a few days without it but I can handle it. I could have gone to the pharmacy on tuesday and waited to pick it up, but I was already having a major panic attack I had been out at appointments most of the day and told my niece I just needed to get home.

So by Saturday still no meds and withdrawal was hitting pretty hard so I got onto myhealthvet and checked and did not see the reorder for the anti-depressants and withdrawal and anxiety were getting much worse. 40 minutes later I could tell I was going to crash hard so I called my niece and up to the ER we went.

I explained that I hadn't gotten my refills, they looked it up and found the pharmacist had cancelled the order and in the reason it said please make it part of a complex order, so the nurse called the pharmacy but they couldn't do anything even though they had cancelled it they said a doctor had to write it. So lucky for me the ER nurse and doc were great, she went and talked to a doc and they got me my meds and I got to come home.

But I mean really don't you think somebody should have been more proactive about getting my meds out to me. I was crashing hard because the pharmacist wanted it written a different way, don't that just piss you off, it does me.

[eagle1012004]

Tbird:

I had a similar situation a few years back....so yes it is BS with a capital B. They know you require the meds, your records show you take the meds....so the Dr. wrote the refill in a way that made the pharmacist unhappy, then they should refill your meds and the DR. and the Pharmicist can get together and figure it out, but don't blame or deny the VET the medicine he/she needs.

Have a great day Tbird!! Thank you for all you do and Thank you for your service!!

Greg

[Berta]

That is very upsetting Tbird.....

I am glad you straightened that out.

We had a vet with similar problem here about a year ago....he was getting the runa run from 2 different VAMCS and needed his anti seizure meds.

I told him to contact the VA IG Hotline and tell them he felt it was a patient safety issue.

He did and the IG immediately contacted the two VAMCs and got him his meds right away.

We had another situation like that and I gave ther same advise but that vet never replied how he made out.

It is up to the IG to detemine if a situation is a patient safety issue but they can make that decision in a heartbeat.

Certainly most med problems could become major safety issues.I had a local vet like that...VA had sent my husband his HBP meds by mistake and the VA was giving him a terrible time saying he had received them already.

He was quite elderly and had made 3 trips to the VAMC because he needed them . One cannot stop taking HBP suddenly.

I had already been to the VAMC on the med error they made with my husband's meds. (Rod died days after taking them but they were actually the dose at what he should have been taking all along) and they (VA) wrote me up (it is in my C file) saying I created a ruckus.

I sure did and it got worse when I told them they better give the other vets his meds right away or the VA might end up killing him too,.

He got his meds right away then.

Under these circumstances VA is supposed to write a special incident report in the files for both of these vets. . Of course they didn't.

I wonder how many other vets go through this BS.

Any sudden withdrawal ( due to not getting HBP meds on time) can cause death.

[john999]

The VA will cancel prescriptions for all sorts of reasons. I have been told that we must call pharmacy each time we get new pill or when we have refills. Any change in prescriptons must be called into pharmacy. So my shrink told me! I use HealthyVet and have not had too much trouble except if you don't refill on time they cancel prescriptions. Now for opiates it is a different story. That I must renew every month and then guess when they will arrive.

John

[carlie]

Not fun at all when meds get messed up.

I hope you got plenty and are doing a bit better.

[vet201060]

Very common for them to just cancel meds for some reason. I have these issues from time to time. They expect you to call to get some of your meds refilled and some can be refilled on myhealthyvet. I guess we are not suppose to have a life and just keep track of everything. I have issues taking care of myself so staying on top of my meds is hard. The DEA just makes it that much harder on honest people and makes the drugs more profitable for the black market. I guess the DEA is just trying to make criminals out of us all. I dont want to have to get my meds illegally but it is becoming a pain to get them legally. I have had to have a short fill many times due to the bureaucracy and BS.