This is the sort of thing that terrifies me:
http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/walgreens-told-pay-285-mil-teen-pharmacy-techs/story?id=9977262&page=1

If you're too lazy to read the story:
1. Young, likely-undertrained pharmacy technician makes an error in data entry of a prescription
2. Very bad error is not caught by pharmacist, terrible therapeutic consequences ensue that contribute to eventual death of patient
3. Lawsuit leading to 26 million dollar judgment against Walgreens

Yikes. Let me first explain that the most terrifying thing about this is that somebody got harmed to such a degree, and also because it happened due to a mistake at both the tech and pharmacist level. That's something to be sad about and sympathetic for the family.

What is unsettling about this is the massive judgment. I do understand that damages were done, massive medical costs were likely incurred, that a life was lost due to the error, that there is emotional damage done to the family that you can't put a price tag on. I agree that there should be some sort of compensation for the error; but for a jury to find for and an appeals court to uphold a 26 million dollar judgment sounds a bit extreme to me.

On a selfish-professional level, I am happy that they didn't go for the throat of the tech/pharmacist responsible and instead went after the corporation. I have never worked for Walgreens but from what I've heard, they do the exact same BS stuff that all other retail pharmacies have been forced to do lately: Cut the workforce hours, which leads to a dangerous working environment. A overworked/understaffed/undertrained pharmacy WILL lead to errors.

I work at a certain major competitor of Walgreens so I figure the trends are pretty similar. Here's how things have changed:
Work environment when Jakeysaurus Rx hatched into retail pharmacy, circa November 2006:
Script volume: ~350-400 on a weekday
(Day) pharmacist hours: 120 a week (3 full-time)
Technician hours: Typically 7 techs on full shifts (8 hour shifts) per weekday

Work environment as Jakeysaurus Rx slowly goes extinct from retail burnout, circa March 2010:
Script volume: 450-500 on a weekday (can be up to ~550 on some Mondays)
(Day) pharmacist hours: ~88 a week (2 full-time, 1 floater with a few hours on occasion)
Technician hours: 6 techs on Mondays, 5 techs most other weekdays

Basically, a huge increase in volume (up to 25% more prescriptions per day than when I started), with 2/3 the pharmacists and 2 fewer techs every day. ERRORS WILL OCCUR.

Why has this happened? I like to blame the Giant Eagle/Walmart bastardization of pharmacy. Their 4-dollar programs, free antibiotics, $25 transfer coupons... yeah they all seem great to the consumer, and they're bunches of fun in the short term. But it changes pharmacy from a once-proud healthcare industry into a competition to shove as many pills into bottles as possible in the fastest and cheapest possible manner.

It makes me sad that just 3 years ago there was no such thing as a damn pharmacy promotional program; there seems to be a new ridiculous thing every week. Due to the need to stay competitive, we are now slaves to all the latest price-cutting, quality-reducing, and stress-inducing "great corporate promotions". And though patients will never see their connection to it, they are the ones that get harmed in the end by the consequences of pharmacy on the cheap.