What is a Medication Error?

If you have been harmed by a pharmacy error, you might be wondering if your injuries are due to medication errors or other mistakes that were made at the pharmacy when you picked up your prescription. There are many reasons that you could have been injured by a medical error that was made at a pharmacy and medication errors are the most common of these kinds of mistakes.

If you have suffered a life-threatening illness or someone in your family has died due to a suspected medication error, you need to know what these mistakes are so that you can seek help from a skilled personal injury lawyer for your needs. Medication errors are a specific category of medical malpractice and pharmacy error, and they are the most common mistakes that are made by pharmacists when medications are not given out correctly to patients.

If you want to know more about medication errors, read on!

What is a Medication Error?

1.       Illegible Handwriting

There are still a surprising number of doctor’s offices that write out prescriptions by hand. This can lead to lots of mistakes being made because handwriting can be quite unclear. If your pharmacist has a question about whether or not they are reading the prescription in their hand correctly, they should call the doctor’s office to confirm, but this is not always done. Many pharmacies will no longer accept handwritten requests, but if yours does, these mistakes can happen quite easily.

2.       Lack of Attention to Allergies and Other Medications

Your pharmacist needs to look at your chart and make sure that you have never had an allergic reaction to a related drug, and they need to verify what medications you are already taking. Some medications cannot be taken together without the risk of injury or death, and your pharmacist should always look at your chart to make sure that this risk is not present.

3.       Protocol is Too Complicated

Many medications that require very specific dosing and instructions when being delivered are not prescribed through a pharmacist. If you are given highly complex instructions for your medication, you should be suspicious that this medication should not be dispensed to you to be taken at home. Most complicated medication regimens will be handled in the office or at the local hospital to make sure that no errors are made.

4.       Pharmacist Never Gets the Order

While there can be issues with medication orders being delivered to your pharmacist so that you can get life-saving medications, these orders are almost always done through electronic means these days. This means that this kind of mistake should not be made often and if it is, it can lead to harm to the patient that needs the medications. This can be particularly true if the pharmacy is out of the medication that you need and you cannot be without this drug for more than a day or so. You should be offered the chance to pick up the medication at another pharmacy if the one that usually fills for you is out of the drug.

5.       Lack of Documentation and Counsel

Your pharmacist must offer you counsel and documentation for all the medications that they give to you. If you are not given drug information paperwork and are not offered counsel, you could take the medication incorrectly or have problems with the medication when you get home. This is a valuable part of the process of giving out medication to patients and your pharmacist must offer these services with each prescription. Even if you have taken the medication before, you should be offered counsel and sign off that you received it each time you pick up a prescription at any pharmacy.

6.       Incorrect Dosage

This error can be the fault of the pharmacist but might also be the fault of the doctor who sent over the order. There are various dosage levels of all drugs, and this is catered to the weight and age of the patient as well as other factors like existing drug regimens. You should not be given a large dose of a medication that you have previously gotten in a smaller dose. This kind of change should be discussed with your doctor before you are given this new dosage of the medication. If you are surprised by an increase in the dose of your medication, you should always check with your doctor before you take the drug. The pharmacist should also never give out medications at an increased dose without verifying that this is not an error and that it makes sense for your height, weight, and age.

7.       Incorrect Medication

If you have been given an incorrect medication that just appears like another drug, this can lead to serious harm or even death. There are many pills that look the same, and sometimes pharmacists will give out the wrong drug thinking that they have the correct pills in your prescription bottle. This is a serious error that your pharmacist should be held accountable for, particularly if you have taken the medication and suffered harm due to this error.

Pharmacy Error and Medication Errors Can Lead to Injury

If you have been injured through a mistake that was caused by your pharmacy making an error in your prescription, you should seek the help of a skilled personal injury lawyer to support your case and efforts to seek compensation. Many of these medication errors can lead to long-term health concerns as well as time away from work, and you need to be able to get the compensation that you deserve for your injuries so that you can take care of yourself and your family.

Work with us at Kennedy Law Firm to make sure that you get the compensation that you deserve for your medication error-related injuries. There is no better law firm to work with for this need and we can make sure that you get the help and support that you need to seek a settlement or to take your case to trial.