Pharmacy errors can occur at different stages of the process of prescribing and dispensing a medication. And although some pharmacy errors may be caught quickly or may have a short-time effect, others can be devastating for Maryland pharmacy error victims. To decrease the prevalence of pharmacy errors, many researchers have looked to documented cases to determine where and how changes can be made.
According to a recent article, the labeling and packaging of medication contributed to two recent pharmacy errors. In one case, the prescriber of a mediation had prescribed sacubitril-valsartan (Entresto), a multi-ingredient medication that combined two drugs. The prescriber listed the strength of the medication prescribed as 100 mg, which was to be taken twice a day. When the pharmacist was filling the prescription, the pharmacist saw that the medication did not include a 100-mg strength, so the pharmacist chose the closest choice—97/103 mg strength (97 mg of one drug and 103 mg of another). However, the prescriber had intended that the patient take the total amount of the 2 drug ingredients (49/51) with 100 mg total.
The patient’s doctor later increased the dose to 100 mg, which was to be taken twice a day. The pharmacist dispensed the same 97/103 mg medication and gave instructions to take two tablets twice a day. The patient had severe adverse effects and the error was discovered. The insert on the medication suggested that the total amount was the basis for clinical trials, but the label listed the ingredients separately. To make matters more confusing, other combination tablets are prescribed according to the strength of each drug rather than the total, such as carbidopa-levodopa (for example 25-100).