Pharmacy Errors in the News

The Most Dangerous Aspect of a Pharmacy Error May Not Be the Side Effects of the Unprescribed Medication

August 22, 2016 | Lebowitz & Mzhen

Prescription drugs are controlled by the government for a reason. They are often very powerful medications that can be dangerous when taken at the same time as other medications, they may be easily abused, and they may have very sensitive dosing instructions. However, when a doctor prescribes a patient a prescription medication, it is often very important that the patient take the medication as directed. A patient’s failure to do so may result in a worsening of symptoms, resulting in a serious injury or death.

This risk of injury translates to a very important duty on the part of the pharmacist to ensure that the patient’s prescriptions are properly filled, dosed, and dispensed. A pharmacist’s failure to properly complete a patient’s prescription may mean that a patient is not receiving the medication that they need. Any worsening of symptoms caused by a pharmacist’s mistake may be the basis for a personal injury lawsuit. One recent example of a pharmacy error illustrates how serious the repercussions can be when a patient fails to get his physician-prescribed medication.

Man Requires Kidney Transplant after Pharmacy Error

Earlier this year, an Ohio man was diagnosed with stage 5 renal failure after the pharmacy where he fills his blood-pressure medication accidentally gave him anti-seizure medication. According to one local news source covering the tragedy, the error occurred when the pharmacy technician filling the prescription overrode an error that was supposed to alert him that he was filling the prescription with the wrong medication.

Both Frequency and Total Cost of Pharmacy Errors May Be Under-Reported

July 15, 2016 | Lebowitz & Mzhen

Pharmacists are human, and humans make mistakes. Whether it be because the pharmacist has such a large work-load that individual patients get lost in the mix, or because the pharmacist has other things on their mind, serious and potentially fatal pharmacy errors are a reality that patients must face. While many of these errors can be caught by the patient, a pharmacy technician, or even a nurse, there continue to be tens of thousands of reported pharmacy errors each year across the United States.

However, according to a recent industry news article, it appears that the incidents of reported errors may be grossly underestimating the true number of mistakes made by pharmacists each year. The article notes that figures from 2013 indicate that there were between 210,000 and 440,000 pharmacy errors committed across the United States. This figure was up from an estimated 110,000 errors in 1999.

Major Pharmacy Chain Must Pay $3.5 Million after Allegations of Forged Prescriptions

July 8, 2016 | Lebowitz & Mzhen

A pharmacy’s duty to the patient generally involves ensuring that the provided medication is in accordance with what the patient’s doctor intended the patient to receive. This means taking care to be sure that the proper medication is provided to the patient in the correct dose, with the appropriate instructions. An error in any one of these areas can result in serious or fatal repercussions to the pharmacy customer.

However, a pharmacy also has a duty to the general public to obey the laws and regulations of the pharmacy industry. This includes filling only legitimate prescriptions filled out by bona fide physicians. This is especially essential in instances regarding highly sought after narcotic pain medication that is unfortunately abused by much of the population. When a pharmacy fails to live up to the expectations placed upon it by the legal system or by society in general, there are often hefty financial consequences. That is exactly what happened when CVS Pharmacy was discovered to have filled dozens of fraudulent prescriptions across several stores in the Boston area.

CVS Fills Fake Prescriptions for Painkillers

Prescription painkillers are some of the most abused prescription drugs on the market. Indeed, some hard-core drug users prefer prescription painkillers to street drugs because of the “clean” high that they provide. And, unfortunately, some people will go to incredible lengths to feed their addiction, including creating fake prescriptions.

Fatal Pharmacy Errors and the Parties Responsible for Preventing Them

July 1, 2016 | Lebowitz & Mzhen

Pharmacy errors are an unfortunately common phenomenon across the United States. Most often, these errors stem from a single problem: a lack of oversight. Often, serious pharmacy errors occur due to a busy pharmacist or pharmacist technician filling an order in haste, rather than taking the proper amount of time and double-checking their work. Ultimately, the responsibility for these errors falls not only on the pharmacist technician making the mistake but also on management in charge of supervising that pharmacist’s work.

In fact, the responsibility for a serious or fatal pharmacy error may lie with several parties. Depending on the specific facts involved in each case, liability may lie with the pharmacist, the management of the pharmacy, and potentially even with other supervising organizations. A recent article discussing a situation in Canada gives an example not often seen here in the United States, but one that could possibly arise.

First Nation Leaders Concerned over Dozens of Deaths Tied to Pharmacy Errors

Over two dozen First Nation citizens in Canada have died at least in part due to pharmacy errors that have occurred over the past 10 months. According to a local news source covering the deaths, all First Nation people in Canada have a specific company that oversees all their prescription drug needs. This company has a contract with the Canadian government.

Pharmacists Among Top Professions Most Likely to Be Replaced by Robots

June 22, 2016 | Lebowitz & Mzhen

It’s no secret that pharmacists are prone to making mistakes. It’s nothing against pharmacists themselves, but merely the fact that they are human, and humans make mistakes. In fact, it is estimated that each year there are between two and three million prescription errors occurring in pharmacies across the nation. Most of these errors are caught before the patient ingests the medication, and many of those that are not caught do not result in serious life-threatening consequences. However, approximately 7,000 deaths each year are caused by pharmacy errors.

The causes of pharmacy errors are several. Most commonly, pharmacy errors are the result of overworked and overburdened pharmacists. Pharmacies, like other businesses, operate for a profit. The higher the cost of labor, the less there is left at the end of the day in profit. Thus, pharmacy management tries to staff just enough technicians and pharmacists to get the job done. However, often an unexpected demand arises, and pharmacists are put in a position where they need to fill this increased demand. This results in less time per patient and an increase in the likelihood that a pharmacist will make a mistake.

Could Pharmacists Be Replaced by Machines?

A recent article listing the top nine jobs that could be replaced by robots placed pharmacists at the top of the list. (The remaining eight professions were cab drivers, debt collectors, bank tellers, writers, astronauts, waiters and waitresses, rescue workers, and housekeepers). Regarding pharmacists, the article cited a 2011 study conducted by the University of California, San Francisco Medical Center, in which two hospitals implemented a completely automated, robot-controlled pharmacy. The results of the study were fascinating, in that not one error was reported in the 350,000 prescription orders that were filled.

Pharmacists Try New Approach to Reduce Medication Errors, Focusing on Increased Communication

May 13, 2016 | Lebowitz & Mzhen

Pharmacy errors are more common than most people realize, with approximately 7,000 deaths each year being attributed to medication errors. Many of these medication errors occur at retail and hospital pharmacies, where busy pharmacists scramble to fill thousands of prescriptions each day. Even a good-hearted and well-intentioned pharmacist can get overwhelmed by the workload and make a seemingly small mistake that can have enormous consequences for the patient.

Several pharmacies in Vermont are trying to do things a little differently in hopes of decreasing pharmacy errors. According to a recent NPR article, at least two pharmacies in this state are putting together daily packets of medication for their patients so that the patient does not need to open the pill bottles, which may number in the dozens, and keep track of the medication themselves. The packets are prepared 30 days in advance so that a patient can get all their prescriptions for the month in one trip to the pharmacy. The patients who receive this service are mostly elderly and take between 15 and 20 pills per day.

Of course, this system does give rise to concerns about accuracy. One pharmacist explained that a patient he was caring for recently went into the hospital and was taken off a certain cardiac medication. However, the pharmacy was not notified and ended up providing the patient with the pill, even though the provider had stopped prescribing the medication. The pharmacist, seeing this as a big problem with the system, also addresses this concern. Through increased communication with their patients’ medical care providers, pharmacists try and keep up to date with patients’ prescriptions so that a patient’s daily packets do not result in non-prescribed medication being provided to the patient.

Food and Drug Administration Recommends Specific Protocols to Avoid Prescription Errors

May 6, 2016 | Lebowitz & Mzhen

Medication errors are a major cause of serious injury and death in the United States. In fact, it is estimated that at least 7,000 Americans die each year due to medication-related issues. Many of these are due to patients being provided the wrong drug or wrong dose by their pharmacist. Of course, the pharmaceutical industry and pharmacies themselves are strictly regulated by the United States government, but it is largely left to the individual pharmacist how they go about doing their job on a day-to-day basis. While some pharmacists certainly implement fail-safe protocols to ensure they are error-free, others are more fast and loose, creating an increased risk of a serious or fatal medication error.

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is the government body responsible for the oversight of pharmacies nationwide. According to one industry news source, the FDA has recently issued specific protocols for pharmacists and drug manufacturers to follow so that they can reduce the chance of causing a serious pharmacy error.

One of the issues the FDA sees as a major problem is the fact that many medications with vastly different purposes share similar names. This can lead to a situation in which a busy pharmacist inadvertently grabs the wrong medication and provides it to a patient. To help alleviate this, the FDA recommends that pharmacy staff should “write down the prescription and then read back the medication name, strength, dose, and frequency of administration for verification.”

Pharmacists’ Reactions to Reported Medication Errors

February 8, 2016 | Lebowitz & Mzhen

Mistakes happen. Despite the best efforts of pharmacists and pharmacy technicians, sometimes an error will occur, and a patient will be provided with the wrong medication, or provided with the right medication but with inaccurate instructions on how to take it. In these cases, patients will almost always first reach out to the filling pharmacist to determine whether an error occurred and whether they should immediately go to the hospital. When pharmacy staff denies the error or tries to push the mistake onto someone else, patients understandably get frustrated.

On one hand, it makes sense why a pharmacist would initially deny liability when hearing that a medication error occurred, since if any injuries result from the error, they could be held personally and professionally liable. In addition, the pharmacy that employs the technician can also be held liable. In fact, in some cases the financial liability for medication errors can reach into the hundreds of thousands of dollars, if not millions, in cases when a serious injury or death is the result. However, avoiding responsibility or hiding the truth from the patient is certainly not the best practice.

Pharmacists Encouraged to Have Detailed Procedures in Place for Reported Errors

Earlier last month, a pharmaceutical industry news source reported on how pharmacies should consider putting detailed protocols in place for handling reported medication errors. The article documents one woman’s experience filling a prescription for 20 mg pills of amitriptyline. Instead of filling the prescription with the 20 mg pills the doctor ordered, the woman was provided 200 mg pills by the pharmacist on duty.

Prescription Dosing Errors: Why and How They Occur

January 11, 2016 | Lebowitz & Mzhen

Pharmacists across the United States fill hundreds of thousands of prescriptions each day and, since they are human and prone to making mistakes, there are estimated to be hundreds of errors per day in pharmacies across the country. Some of these errors are minor or will be caught before the patient leaves the pharmacy. However, others may result in serious injury or even death in some cases.

One type of mistake a pharmacist can make is a dosing error. A dosing error occurs when the pharmacist provides the correct drug to the patient but fills the prescription with an incorrect dose. There are several possible causes for a dosing error. However, most often they are caused by a rushed or overworked pharmacist trying to fill prescriptions for large numbers of waiting patients.

FDA Cautions Pharmacists Regarding Noxafil

Earlier this month, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) released a caution to pharmacists that the different formulations of the prescription drug Noxafil, manufactured by Merck, cannot be directly substituted for one another. According to one industry news source, since the delayed-release version of the drug was approved by the FDA back in 2011, there have been 11 documented cases in which a patient was provided the wrong dose by a pharmacist. In fact, one of those cases resulted in the hospitalization and another in the death of the patient.

Birth Control Mix Up Results in 113 Unintended Pregnancies, Lawsuit Follows

November 16, 2015 | Lebowitz & Mzhen

Earlier this month, a lawsuit was filed in Philadelphia, alleging that improperly packaged birth control medication resulted in over 100 unplanned and unintended pregnancies. According to one national news source, the drugs involved are Cyclafem, Emoquette, Gildess, Orsythia, Previfem, and Tri-Previfem.

Evidently, the birth control medication was packaged incorrectly, decreasing the drug’s effectiveness in preventing pregnancy. Normally, birth control medication comes in a blister pack, one pill for each day of the month. Twenty-one of the pills contain hormones that prevent pregnancy, and seven of the pills are a placebo. Women taking the medication are supposed to take it in order, without mixing the hormone pills with the placebo pills. By incorrectly packaging the drug and mixing up the order of the pills, the plaintiffs allege that the manufacturer of the medication was negligent and that its negligence resulted in the unplanned pregnancies.

A few days prior to the filing of this lawsuit, a similar one was filed in Georgia. However, the judge hearing that case denied the plaintiffs’ request to be certified as a class in order to proceed as a class action lawsuit. The judge explained that “each plaintiff must show in an individualized manner which ‘physical symptoms’ she suffered, her medical history, and whether her use of any allegedly defective product resulted in these physical symptoms or a pregnancy.” Since each of the women’s situations was different, the judge declined the request to certify the class.