Errors in local pharmacies

New York Pharmacies to Provide Foreign Language Prescription Instructions

January 30, 2009 | Lebowitz & Mzhen

Maryland pharmacy error attorneys serve a number of clients who do not speak English as their first language. Some of these clients have raised the issue of not being able to receive prescriptions or dosage instructions written or spoken in their native languages from big box pharmacies. The attorneys at Lebowitz & Mzhen Personal Injury Lawyers believe that this shortcoming places a large number of citizens in danger of harmful pharmacy errors. According to the 2000 US Census, 667,357 Marylanders speak a language other than English in their homes.

As we discussed in an earlier post, Maryland pharmacists must provide medication counseling to patients when requested, and must provide written dosage instructions with prescriptions. Counseling and written instructions in English are useless to a pharmacy patient that has difficulty understanding the language.

Pharmacy Today reports that following an undercover investigation by New York Attorney General, Andrew Cuomo, Rite Aide and CVS have agreed to provide medication instructions in languages other than English at their New York locations. The investigation began after reports that pharmacies failed to provide side effect information and drug interaction warnings in patients’ native language. New York Rite Aid and CVS locations will now provide dosage and side effect information to patients in Russian, Spanish, Chinese, Italian, French and Polish. The companies also agreed to provide assistance using an over the phone translation service.

Our attorneys believe that Maryland pharmacies should follow suit and help ensure that all patients fully understand their medication dosage instructions and other relevant information.

Medication Errors in Maryland Pharmacies May be Reduced with Periodic Brown Bag Check Ups

January 28, 2009 | Lebowitz & Mzhen

In many of our earlier posts, we have discussed the threats posed by medication errors in Maryland pharmacies. The Maryland pharmacy error attorneys at Lebowitz & Mzhen, LLC suggest that our clients take an active role in their health care in order to prevent prescription errors. Consumers should get as much information about their medications as possible, direct questions about their medications to their doctors, nurses, and pharmacists, and persist until these questions are answered clearly and understandably.

Individuals with chronic medical conditions are at increased risk for prescription errors. These patients often receive a number of prescriptions bearing various dosage instructions from different physicians. Maryland medication error attorneys suggest that their clients, especially those with chronic conditions, schedule a “brown-bag check up” with their pharmacist and primary care doctor. During a brown bag check up a patient gathers all of their prescription and over the counter medications and has them reviewed by health care professionals for dangerous interactions. Additionally, the pharmacist or doctor ensures that the medications are labeled and filled correctly, double checks the prescribed dosage strengths, and screens the drugs for serious side effects.

Maryland medication error attorneys believe that pharmacy patients should take advantage of prescription counseling provided by pharmacists to help reduce their risk of injuries caused by pharmacy misfills. A brown bag check up may help prevent injuries caused by jumbled medication dosage instructions. Under complex medication regimes, it is easy for confusion to cause a potentially harmful medication error.

Pharmacy Malpractice Insurance Companies Advice to Pharmacists Facing A Claim: Admit Nothing

January 21, 2009 | Lebowitz & Mzhen

There are many reasons why I believe that someone injured due to a Maryland pharmacy error should hire an attorney. One of the reasons is that pharmacists are instructed by their malpractice insurance companies to avoid admitting that they have done anything wrong, even when the pharmacist knows that he or she was sloppy, careless, wrong or negligent, and that injury and harms resulted to the patient.

The instruction to pharmacists to be silent in the face of causing injury to a pharmacy customer was re-emphasized in a letter sent within the last two weeks to pharmacists by a very large pharmacists’ malpractice insurance carrier. The letter contained a plastic card which the pharmacist was told to “KEEP THIS CARD IN A SAFE PLACE.” The full instructions to the pharmacist, as contained on the card, stated:

WHAT TO DO IF YOU’RE SUED:

1. Contact. . . [insurance company] as soon as you are aware of a potential claim.
2. Do not discuss claim with anyone – including the patient.
3. Do not sign/accept any document without approval from your. . . [insurance company] Claims Consultant.
4. Do not admit liability or agree to any settlement proposal.
5. Report any communication you receive immediately to your. . . [insurance company] Claims Consultant.”

So, while your local pharmacist may be pleasant, nice, and generally helpful, if that same pharmacist has been negligent, do not expect the pharmacist to be open and forthright with you. By following the common instructions given by his or her malpractice insurance company, the pharmacist will act as if everything is fine, without acknowledging errors or injury.