Most people trust that the medication that they receive from the pharmacy or treatment nurse is just what the doctor ordered. Unfortunately, problems with the wrong medication or wrong dosage being dispensed cause numerous serious injuries and cost many lives each year. According to the Institute of Medicine, every year 1.5-million patients suffer from medication errors or mistakes after receiving a prescription from a physician.
An Auburn University study projected the odds of being the victim of a prescription error that results in a serious, health-threatening issue is about 1 in 1,000, a rate that could amount to 3.7 million such errors a per year.
Causes of Medication Errors
- Poor pharmacy management at hospitals and drug stores
- Failing to check prescriptions for accuracy
- Failing to check potential drug interactions for the patient
- Incorrect directions for drug use on labels
- Confusing similar drug names
- Use of pharmacy technicians that have much less training than pharmacists
- Failing to offer face-to-face counseling for new prescriptions between pharmacist and patient as required by laws in 48 states
- Failure to use computer programs designed to warn about drug interactions
- Patient information leaflets containing out of date information about drugs
- Hospital pharmacies being subcontracted out to companies resulting in little communication between hospital staff and pharmacy staff
- Pharmacist or pharmacy technician enters wrong dosage into computer
- Poor maintenance of pharmacy mixing machines
- Nurses in hospitals failing to check the medication going into IV lines
- Pharmaceutical companies labeling different medications similarly and confusingly
Free Legal Consultation For Medication Error Victims
If you or a loved one has suffered after receiving the wrong drug or dose of medication from a pharmacy or physician's office, it is important for you to understand your legal rights for holding the negligent party or parties accountable for their wrongdoing.
Call the award-winning medical malpractice attorneys at Davis Law Group in Seattle to learn more about your legal rights and request a free legal consultation with our legal team.
