The most damaging pharmacy errors occur during dispensing of medication. Patients could receive the wrong dose or, worse, a completely different medication than what they were prescribed. Researchers studying the matter found an estimated 44,000 to 98,000 patients die each year in hospitals as a result of medication errors.
Lecture notes from a subject matter expert at Pharmacist.com project that dispensing errors occur at a rate of 17 for every 1,000 prescriptions dispensed. Since over three billion medications are dispensed in a year, that error rate equals 51 million errors per year, or 4 errors per day for every 250 prescriptions filled.
In other words: pharmacy errors happen far more often than one might expect. Learn more about these risks — and how a pharmacy malpractice attorney in San Francisco can help you recover damages for any harmful effects — by reading on.
Types of Dispensing Errors Leading to Pharmacy Malpractice
There are many possible actions that could lead to dispensing errors that harm patients. These include:
- Doctors writing prescriptions for the incorrect dosage or medication
- Doctors failing to account for interactions between prescribed medications
- Pharmacists filling prescriptions with the wrong medication or an incorrect dosage
- Pharmacists mixing up similar drug names while dispensing
- Pharmacists mixing up patients/customers based on similar last names
- Pharmacists misinterpreting a prescription request because of a doctor’s bad handwriting
Errors like these happen all too often. One incident saw a 71-year-old woman, who was prescribed the blood pressure medication amlodipine (brand name: Norvasc), accidentally receive her prescription filled with thiothixene (brand name: Navane), an antipsychotic medication. The resulting medical complications led to multiple hospital visits and emergency heart surgery. Her blood pressure was poorly managed while side effects from the antipsychotic medication led to severe anxiety, dizziness, and diminished mobility, the latter of which caused her doctor to suspect Parkinson’s was to blame. Finally, they realized that she had continued to take the wrong medication for over three months before anyone caught the error.
Another pharmacy malpractice case, this one in California, saw a two-month-old child receiving a dosage five times higher than the ordered prescription, causing possible injury to the child and significant emotional distress to the family.
Whether by a simple mistake or the result of being overworked, errors like these are costly, dangerous, and sometimes deadly.
Receiving Compensation for Pharmacy Errors With the Help of a Pharmacy Malpractice Attorney in San Francisco
If you or a loved one has been the victim of an error like the ones described above, you could be eligible for damages under California medical malpractice law. These damages can make up for any medical costs resulting from your injury as well as possible emotional distress, lost income, pain and suffering and other losses.
You can contact a San Francisco pharmacy malpractice attorney to begin assembling documentation for your case and to prepare a strategy for legal action.