Video: Pharmacies sometimes make errors with prescriptions

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Are you getting the right medicine when you go to the pharmacy? For millions of Americans each year, the answer surprisingly is no, but there are ways to protect yourself.

Like any toddler, Jordan Woodson doesn't always like the medicine he gets for his ear infections.

"I just figured he's not going to get better because he's not taking the medicine," said Tiffani Woodson, Jordan's mother.

But the Woodsons are thrilled that Jordan stubbornly refused his antibiotic the last time he got sick.

"When I got to the pharmacy, that's when they told me that they tried to call my house because basically they had found an error," said Tiffani Woodson.

A big error. This is how much medicine Jordan was supposed to get, but the label called for three times as much, twice a day, for ten days.

"Never did it occur to us that the store, the pharmacist would make an error and put in the wrong dosage," said Tobari Woodson, Jordan's father.

A rare occurrence? Studies do show that pharmacies are right more than 98 percent of the time, however….

"When you consider that about four billion prescriptions are dispensed every year in the United States in retail pharmacies, you realize that's 68 million errors a year. So it doesn't seem so good," said Dr. Bruce Lambert, pharmacy professor.

Lambert says the vast majority of errors don't harm patients, but that still leaves several million errors that can cause problems.

"Some of them will cause you mild discomfort but of course at the severe end of the spectrum they can even cause people to die," he said.

The Woodsons vow to be more careful. They say it didn't occur to them that a mistake like this was even possible.

Another problem? Look alike or sound alike names, like Celebrex or Cerebyx. One is for arthritis, the other is a seizure drug.

Now there's a Web site that identifies such drugs so consumers can check for themselves.