Costco Pharmacy Experience - Possible Cc From Refills

[shooz]

A few months back, I read about a potential source of CC that I'd never even thought of: pharmacists don't clean the trays between refills unless you specifically ask them to. So for the past few months, I've been asking them to clean the trays before filling my prescriptions to prevent CC. It turns out this might not be enough....

 

I'm currently taking Nystatin, which are dark red pills. This last time when I went to get my refill, the pharmacist said the pills already had white powder all over them and offered to order a new, unopened bottle for me. Turns out, even if you ask them to clean the tray between refills, it may be too late, because they may have previously poured the pills out onto the tray to fill someone else's prescription and not cleaned the tray during THAT refill and then returned the excess pills back into the bottle. The pharmacist recommended that if I'm really concerned about CC, to always get my prescriptions filled from unopened bottles.

I thought this info might help others, especially those that are more sensitive. I'm not sure if this applies to Costco or all pharmacies in general.

 

Cheers!

[dilettantesteph]

It sounds like your pharmacist is really on top of things.  Good for you for having explained it so carefully to him.  Thank you for the warning.  My son will be having to take some medication for surgery soon and this information should help me to keep him safer.  He is extremely sensitive.

[cap6]

Thank you for that.  I always go inside for my refills as opposed to doing it on the phone and request clean pill trays.  Sigh...  one more thing to worry about. 

[jrohr]

  On 7/6/2013 at 2:01 AM, shooz said:

A few months back, I read about a potential source of CC that I'd never even thought of: pharmacists don't clean the trays between refills unless you specifically ask them to. So for the past few months, I've been asking them to clean the trays before filling my prescriptions to prevent CC. It turns out this might not be enough....

 

I'm currently taking Nystatin, which are dark red pills. This last time when I went to get my refill, the pharmacist said the pills already had white powder all over them and offered to order a new, unopened bottle for me. Turns out, even if you ask them to clean the tray between refills, it may be too late, because they may have previously poured the pills out onto the tray to fill someone else's prescription and not cleaned the tray during THAT refill and then returned the excess pills back into the bottle. The pharmacist recommended that if I'm really concerned about CC, to always get my prescriptions filled from unopened bottles.

I thought this info might help others, especially those that are more sensitive. I'm not sure if this applies to Costco or all pharmacies in general.

 

Cheers!

Thank you. I recently refilled a prescription I have taken for years. I have not previously had any problems but the last two times I it was like I was glutened. The first time I thought it must be something else. After the second one I called the pharmacy. The pharmacist said it was the same pill (manufacturer) as before. I thought maybe they had changed a formulation of the filler ingredients. Cross contamination from the trays makes sense! I will need to address this too. I hope my pharmacy is a cooperative as yours sounds like it is.