Charlie Baase

Human error has happened so often in my life, I no longer wonder why. I just brace for the next round. It’s coming. In healthcare, though, it often comes with a dangerous — and pricey — twist. Over the weekend I found that the 15 Augmentin pills I was prescribed to round out my regimen of antibiotics for E coli came in a bottle that actually contained only 11 pills. OK. I can handle that, right? Over the course of the day, I started figuring out what I needed to do. Walgreens was no help. The Vermont @Walgreens told me, bluntly and a little viciously, that they weren’t responsible for taking care of a Texas Walgreens’ error. They didn’t have to “take it out of their stocks.” The Texas Walgreens in Austin — that’s you, Nick Young — told me cavalierly that there was nothing they could do. “I can’t make them fix it,” says Young. “Nothing we can do.” OK, I’m working, doing stuff. I took my last pill at 1 pm. I’m holding an empty bottle now. This is serious business; gram-negative bacteria. But I’m not on the floor this time. I reach my hospital internist in Austin, Dermejian, and he says, hey, I can’t prescribe you anything. I’m in Texas. Do you know another doctor? Nope, not in Vermont. My oncologist’s office at Dana Farber, which is usually helpful via PatientGateway, doesn’t respond. And doesn’t respond. And doesn’t respond. It’s now 4:30 so I beat it to an urgent care clinic, where I agree to spend no more than $475 to get an rx for the missing 4 pills from a PA. Nice people. And then I beat it to Walgreens, where a surly, harried pharmacist with a small knot of waiting patients hovering nearby hands over the 4 pills for free. So what happens to someone in my shoes who doesn’t have up to $475? Or doesn’t speak English? Or a couple hours to take off work? Or…well, whatever. They risk a relapse and a return trip to the hospital. Walgreens won’t care. Just another day for a sick system. How many times did a human error inflict trouble on a patient today? Think about it.