Earlier this month, a study was released in the American Journal of Health Systems Pharmacy that looked at error rates in hospital pharmacies. Specifically, the study considered the link between the number of incoming orders over the course of a given shift and the prescription error rate. Not surprisingly, the…
Earlier this month, a prescription drug designed and marketed for the treatment of some kinds of cancer, including brain cancer, was recalled because a number of the bottles that contained the drug had faulty caps. According to one industry news report, the caps of approximately 1,100 bottles of the prescription…
Earlier last month, the major pharmaceutical company GlaxoSmithKline was named as a defendant in a lawsuit brought by the parents of a child who was born with a birth defect after his mother took medication produced by the drug manufacturer during pregnancy. According to one national news source, the drug,…
Earlier this month in Auburn University’s Harrison School of Pharmacy, students and professors put on a mock trial, mimicking a real criminal law trial that alleged criminal negligence on the part of a pharmacist who signed off on an improperly diluted medication that was given to a young child. According…
Earlier this month, two pharmacies in Saskatchewan, Canada, were fined a total of $43,000 after it was discovered that between the two pharmacies, they had misfilled roughly 20 prescriptions over the past few years. According to one local news source, regulators found several errors, including filling prescriptions for medication that was…
Picking up a prescription at the local pharmacy is something almost everyone has the occasion to do at some point in their life. In fact, many people pick up multiple prescriptions per month. Picking up a prescription that was provided or filled in error seems to many to be one…
Earlier last month, an Oregon woman filed a lawsuit against the national supermarket chain Fred Meyer, alleging that an error made in one of the chain’s pharmacies greatly decreased her chances of becoming pregnant. According to a local Oregon news report, the woman is seeking damages in the amount of…
Earlier this month in the English county of Kent, a mother of a five-year-old boy discovered that the pharmacist had included a bottle of what was later determined to be methadone. The bottle had a label on it indicating that it was supposed to have been provided to another patient.…
Over the last decade or so, the number of specialty pharmacies in the industry has greatly increased. According to one industry news report, this is due in part to the fact that drug manufacturers prefer to rely on a specialized pharmacy to assist patients with the administration and use of…
Back in 2006, Christopher Jerry lost his daughter when she died in a hospital after being provided an improperly dosed IV prepared by a hospital pharmacist. According to one recent news article, Jerry has since become an advocate to fix the errors he claims are inherent in the flawed system…