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Wrong Medication Causes Pharmacy Malpractice Lawsuits

There are many reasons for pharmacy malpractice, such as overworked pharmacists, not enough staff, too many distractions, and other causes. Unfortunately, the reasons for pharmacist error seem endless:

  • In one pharmacy malpractice case, a technician grabbed the wrong bottle from the shelf and filled a customer’s prescription order with the wrong drug. Although a pharmacist is supposed to review the technician’s work, the pharmacist may be too busy or distracted to catch the mistake. Sadly, this mistake caused serious side effects for the innocent patient involved.  
  • In another drug error case, a pharmacist made a label switch mistake because he was multitasking and filling multiple prescriptions for one patient. A customer had a prescription for one drug twice a day and once a day for another medication; however, the labels got onto the wrong containers and caused the patient to take the wrong dosage of his prescription – causing congestive heart failure from the prescription error.
  • In yet another pharmacy malpractice case, a pharmacist took a prescription over the phone from a doctor’s office and prepared the label, counted the drugs, and poured it in the bottle. However, before he could put the label on the bottle, he received another call for another prescription request. While the pharmacist was filling the other prescription, he somehow got the two labels mixed up and gave the drugs to the wrong patients.
  • In other cases, pharmacists get drug names that look alike mistaken for each other. For instance, Prilosec for Prozac or Navane for Norvasc. The lookalike drug name problem occurs so often that a committee of the United States Pharmacopeia has been formed to review new drug names in hopes of preventing these drug errors. 
  • In pharmacy malpractice lawsuits, pharmacists sometimes guess at physicians’ handwriting instead of verifying the prescription. This is why electronic prescribing is more common these days; however, pharmacist error can still occur if the pharmacist thinks he read one name but it was really another drug name. 

In order to avoid pharmacy malpractice, pharmacists need to remember their duty of care, practice at a high level, review technicians’ work, take time with patients, and counsel customers picking up their new medications. Additionally, pharmacies can hire more staff so that their pharmacists can do their jobs safely and efficiently without causing health risks to customers. 

If you or your loved one has been a victim of pharmacy error, you may want to file a pharmacy malpractice lawsuit with the help of an experienced prescription error lawyer at Kennedy Hodges. Give us a call at 888-526-7616 for a complimentary consultation today. Also, get a FREE copy of our report How to Make Pharmacies Pay for Injuries Caused by Medication Errors.


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