Prescription errors are shockingly common. Studies estimate that more than 7,000 people are killed every year in America by pharmacy malpractice. The corporate system that insists pharmacists fill quickly to the detriment of their patients is a big cause of medication errors made by pharmacies. Here is a chart summarizing the most common prescription mistakes made by pharmacies and their causes. There are other medication errors which can be made, and are made every day in chain pharmacies
Figure 1: FDA Study (1993-1998), and Medication Error Reporting Program by U.S. Pharmacopeia (USP) and the Institute for Safe Medication Practices (ISMP).
Confusion caused by similar drug names: One of the most PREVENTABLE causes of medication errors.
Many errors are made because of similar-sounding prescription names or look-alike drug product packaging. A few examples include:
The reason so many medication errors occur is because the corporations who own the retail pharmacies put profits above safety for both the consumers who depend on them and their employees. Imagine supervising three or four people who are not as educated about drugs as you are, with shelves and shelves full of medications, many of which have similar sounding names. Now imagine that you do this 12-16 hours every day, with no rest break, no meal break, and no time to go to the restroom. All the medicines are organized alphabetically, rather than by category or type.
This leaves room for error, too. Risperdal is not too far from Ritalin on the shelves, and they do completely different things. The pharmacist and his three or four technicians might fill 300 or 400 prescriptions in a day, with an error rate that is caught by the pharmacist only 16.6% of the time. These people have about two minutes to spend on each prescription from reading to cross-checking to bagging the vials and placing them in the proper location. Rather than hire a pharmacist to help out on every shift,
Walgreens, CVS, Rite-Aid, Kmart, and others would rather pay off the few people who come forward each year as a cost of doing business.
The truth of the matter is that the error rate in pharmacies is far too high and every single medication error from being given wrong drugs to being given the wrong dose of medicine is entirely preventable. Contact us and know your rights. Medication errors can be avoided.
Pharmacy errors can cause death or significant health concerns. If you think that you have been harmed due to a
Pharmacy negligence results in 1.5 million injuries to people in the US each year. These errors happen in the hospital
Pharmacists are required by law and by definition of their duties to provide specific care to their customers and patients
