Pharmacists rely heavily on an advanced command of mathematics to accurately fill prescriptions and avoid Maryland pharmacy errors. While some medications come pre-packaged, and all a pharmacist needs to do is double-check the physician’s instructions, other prescriptions require pharmacists to make small adjustments to dosage or administration instructions. This is…
Articles Posted in Common Errors
Workplace Pressure Is a Key Factor in the High Rate of Maryland Pharmacy Errors
Pharmacists, like doctors and nurses, are medical professionals and are accordingly held to a high standard. This standard requires that pharmacists perform the duties of their job diligently, ensuring that patients are provided with accurate prescriptions and instructions on how to take their medication. When pharmacists make mistakes, anyone injured…
New Study Shows Increase in Medication Errors Occurring at Home
When researchers look into the causes of medication errors, errors are broken down into several categories. Two of the main types of Maryland medication errors are errors that occur in a hospital setting and those that occur in a patient’s own home. When researchers refer to at-home medication errors, they…
Handwritten Prescriptions Show High Rate of Prescription Errors
Maryland prescription errors can occur at different stages in the prescription process. One of the ways errors can occur is when a pharmacist misinterprets the doctor’s handwriting on the prescription form. Errors can also occur when a doctor handwrites a prescription but forgets to include certain pertinent information. Even when…
Pharmacy Errors Involving Expired Medication
Pharmacists are responsible for ensuring that the prescriptions they fill are correct. Of course, this means that pharmacists must take care to provide patients with the correct medication, at the correct dose, and with the appropriate dosing instructions. To be sure, most medication errors involve an oversight involving one of…
Pharmacy Errors Involving Look-Alike and Sound-Alike Drug Names
Pharmacy errors have been on the rise over the past few years. While there are many reasons why a pharmacist may give the wrong medication to a patient, one of the most commonly reported causes of pharmacy errors is look-alike and sound-alike drug names. The pharmaceutical industry relies heavily on…
Long Hours and Stressful Working Conditions Contribute to Pharmacy Errors
Pharmacists have a great deal of responsibility in that they are responsible for accurately providing patients with physician-prescribed medication, double-checking that their prescribed medication does not negatively interact with other medications, and advising patients with medication-related advice. There can be little doubt that pharmacists have their hands full. This is…
The Lack of Pharmacy Regulations May Result in an Increased Risk of Error
In some ways, the pharmaceutical industry is heavily regulated. Medications must undergo years of testing before they are released and available for prescription. Similarly, pharmacists themselves must obtain a specialized advanced degree and have a certain amount of on-the-job training before they are certified. However, pharmacy technicians require less training…
Pharmacy Errors Occurring After a Transition to Long-Term Care
The dangers of prescription drugs have been well-documented over the past several decades. In most cases, a medication is made available only by prescription because it presents an increased risk of causing harm to a patient who should not be taking it. This can be due to an increased risk…
Human Error Is Not the Only Contributing Factor in Some Pharmacy Errors
When most hear that a pharmacy error was made, they assume that a busy pharmacist grabbed the wrong prescription, got the dosage information incorrect, or printed the wrong instructions. However, according to a recent industry news report, a large portion of pharmacy errors list information technology as a contributing factor…