Has anyone had a Walgreen's pharmacist change the medication prescribed by your doctor?

[sinkingfeeling]

I needed a booster of oral typhoid vaccine, called Vivotif, and drove 100 miles round trip to the Carle Travel Clinic last Thursday to get the prescription. They phoned it into my local Walgreen's and I picked up 3 prescriptions today. When I got home, I didn't recognize one for bacterial infections, Azithromycin. A Google search has this drug as 'may be' useful in treating typhoid in children 4-17.

I checked that the order was for Vivotif. I'm going to take it back to the pharmacy and show them the documented prescription as it shows on my personal Carle account app.

Has this ever happened to any one else?

[marble falls]

1. No but the town Walgreen was shut down a couple of days last year while the DEA came in and audited them.

[Skittles]

2. I don't see how they could change it without you or your doc knowing

that is bizarre

can't you just call the pharmacy?

[sinkingfeeling]

4. They don't answer phone calls.

[Skittles]

8. A PHARMACY THAT DOESN'T ANSWER PHONE CALLS?

honestly, I have NEVER HEARD of such a thing

[kcr]

14. My CVS no longer answers the phone either

You can leave a message, but you never hear back. Been that way for a few weeks. I switched pharmacies.

[edisdead]

11. Uhhh that is strange.

They pretty much have to field phone calls for all sorts of reasons.

[questionseverything]

3. I would call first

Possibly the pharmacist has already talked to doctor about the substitution

But one time in the Walgreens drive thru lane I got someone else’s prescriptions

When I called the store they were super apologetic and nice, it was taken care of quickly

[sinkingfeeling]

5. It's not a substitution. One is a vaccine good for 5 years and the other is a treatment for children.

[NoRethugFriends]

6. a little googling shows that vivotif may not be available now

If that is the case, and the pharmacist talk to the prescribing doctor, one of the two of them should have notified you

[hlthe2b]

15. NO! That was a short-term issue during COVID-19 peak. FDA shows the shortage RESOLVED

Typhoid Vaccine Live Oral Ty21a
VIVOTIF®

NDC Number:
69401-000-02 Emergent Travel Health, Inc. 1-800-533-5899
Or email at:
[e-mail] In January 2021, Emergent Travel Health, Inc. informed the FDA that they had decided to temporarily discontinue the manufacture and distribution of VIVOTIF® in the United States due to a significant reduction of international travel caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Emergent also informed the FDA that they remained committed to travel health and planned to resume the manufacture and distribution of VIVOTIF® in the United States once global travel resumed.
Resolved:
June 2022[/b]

https://www.fda.gov/vaccines-blood-biologics/safety-availability-biologics/cber-regulated-products-resolved-shortages

It may be that Walgreen or that area did not have a distributor able to obtain VIVOTIF, but if the physician agreed to substitute a prophylactic supply of Azithromycin then the pharmacist should have explained that to the patient.

[NoRethugFriends]

16. There are later things googlable about not being available in 2024

[hlthe2b]

18. I just referred friends to a travel clinic in Denver where they got it without problem 2 weeks ago.

FDA keeps this up-to-date so please provide a link to the official FDA site (as I did). As I do refer people not infrequently if I have missed spot shortages, I'd very much like to see it. It is possible that some clinics still are using what backstock they have, so again, please show me the update.

[rsdsharp]

7. It could be the pharmacist is a moran. I used to go to a CVS that hired a pharmacist. . .

let’s call him Lonnie — cause that was his name. He once gave me the wrong prescription, once gave me someone else’s prescription, and once gave me a tube of cream to be applied. . . well. . . somewhere hard to reach, and harder to see — unless you are a Republican. The problem was he didn’t include the nozzle needed to use it. When I took it back, he said it could be used in other places, too. “Well, I’m not using it in ‘other places,’ pal. Gimme the freakin’ nozzle.”

[North Shore Chicago]

9. lol

"let’s call him Lonnie — cause that was his name."

This is funny to me.

[edisdead]

10. They will with generics sometimes

They usually have a sign stating that this is their practice.

[NoRethugFriends]

13. it is not a generic for that medicine

[MagickMuffin]

12. Yes, happened to me

Also concerning thyroid medication. They didn’t carry the dosage I needed.

So

They changed my medication without my doctor’s approval, which I had always been told that only DOCTORS could prescribe medication.

I explained it to my doctor and apparently didn’t understand what I wrote, because she replied she resent the prescription to be filled that I currently take.

I guess before leaving the store we should all check our prescriptions to make sure they are the correct ones.

[sinkingfeeling]

17. They messed up and hadn't attempted to fill the one Vivotif. Now they are ordering it for me. The other one,

Azithromycin, was prescribed for an emergency bad bout of stomach problems in a foreign country.