Pharmacy Errors in the News

Pharmacists’ Performance Evaluation Metric Acts Like a “Quota System” to Reward Speed Over Precision

October 19, 2015 | Lebowitz & Mzhen

Pharmacies, like other businesses, are operated for profit, and labor is one of the main expenses for a pharmacy. Therefore, a pharmacy that hopes to remain profitable will likely try and provide only enough pharmacists who will be able to fill the prescriptions for the patients who come through the door. Excess pharmacists means the pharmacy is losing money in labor costs.

However, as one recent industry news source points out, the evaluation metric being used by some pharmacies feels a lot like a quota system where pharmacists are pressured into fill prescriptions as quickly as possible. This, of course, could have a detrimental effect on the pharmacist’s accuracy.

Pharmacy Errors Across the Country

Each year, there are an estimated one million medication errors that occur throughout the United States. Of those patients that are provided with an inaccurate medication, about 7,000 will die each year. This makes prescription errors one of the top 10 leading causes of death in the country.

Pharmacist Mistakenly Provides Chemotherapy Drug to Elderly Patient and Then Tries To Cover Up His Mistake

October 7, 2015 | Lebowitz & Mzhen

Earlier this month in New Zealand, a pharmacist was reprimanded by the governing professional board after it was discovered that he made an error in providing a patient with the wrong medication and then tried to cover up his mistake. According to one industry news source, the pharmacist accidentally provided an elderly patient with a chemotherapy drug rather than his prescribed immunosuppressant medication.

Evidently, the elderly patient had recently undergone a kidney transplant and was prescribed an immunosuppressant as a part of his recovery. However, when the man went to fill the prescription, he was provided a chemotherapy drug instead. It was not until three weeks later that the man returned, asking the pharmacist why his pills had changed, that the pharmacist discovered that there may have been an error. He told the patient to stop taking the drug.

Upon investigating the error, the filling pharmacist discovered that he was the one who had filled the prescription. Once he realized that he had made the error, the pharmacist failed to report the error. The Deputy Health and Disability Commissioner, who oversees pharmacists, explained to reporters that the pharmacist should have provided the patient with counseling as well as reported the error. It was not until the pharmacy owner later discovered that the chemotherapy drug supply was depleted that management knew there had been an error. He then made the appropriate report.

New Study Looks at Error Rates in Hospital Pharmacies

September 22, 2015 | Lebowitz & Mzhen

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 results of the study indicated that the busier the pharmacy, the more likely that there would be a pharmacy error made.

The study took place in Houston, Texas, between July 1, 2011 and June 30, 2012. Over the course of the study, over 1.9 million prescriptions were filled by about 50 pharmacists. In total, there were 92 prescription errors recorded.

Causes and Effects of Pharmacy Errors

August 14, 2015 | Lebowitz & Mzhen

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 of those situations that “couldn’t happen to me.” However, as a recent article points out, prescription errors are more common than most people think, and they can often have dire consequences if they are not caught immediately.

Common Causes of Prescription Errors

The causes of prescription errors are several, but certain causes appear again and again in studies. The volume of prescriptions that pharmacists and pharmacist technicians must fill on a daily basis results in a high-stress environment where little time is left to double-check one’s work.

A rushed pharmacist is likely working to fill several customers’ orders at a time and may cut corners to save time. However, that type of behavior can increase the risk of providing an incorrect medication to a patient, such as either of the following examples:

As Specialty Mail-Order Pharmacies Proliferate, Accuracy Counts

July 22, 2015 | Lebowitz & Mzhen

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 their drug than to rely on regular retail pharmacies. However, as the article notes, as more and more patients rely on these specialty mail-order pharmacies, the accuracy of these pharmacies becomes critical to patient health.

Most often, specialty pharmacies deal with very expensive medication. In many cases, this medication is provided to the patient in fairly small amounts in order to prevent what pharmacists call stockpiling, or refilling a prescription a few days early and saving the remaining doses. However, while stockpiling may be seen as a negative from the pharmacy’s and drug manufacturer’s point of view, it means that the accuracy of these pharmacies must be spot on, or else patients may miss a dose.

If a pharmacy only sends out enough medication to last a certain amount of time, and there is an error in the shipment, that may mean that a patient does not receive their required medication for several days. In some cases, this can result in serious health consequences. In fact, the article notes that it is not uncommon for a pharmacy to make an error in the quantity of medication that is sent to a patient, leaving them with less than the required amount for a given time period. Most often, a pharmacy will act quickly to remedy this error, but that doesn’t mean that the consequences can always be avoided.

Pharmacy Owner Charged in Federal Court for Repackaging Returned Drugs

June 22, 2015 | Lebowitz & Mzhen

Earlier this week in Grand Rapids, Michigan, the owner of a pharmacy was sentenced to three years of probation, 200 hours of community service, and a $30,000 fine for his involvement in a drug repackaging scheme. According to one local Michigan news source, the man who was sentenced was not actually involved in the repackaging scheme, but under the law he was held responsible as the former owner and current registered pharmacist on location.

Evidently, the man who was just sentenced sold the pharmacy to another man, Mulder, back in 2008. Although Mulder was the new owner of the pharmacy chain, the defendant in the case stayed on as a registered pharmacist at one of the branches. Since the defendant self-financed the deal, Mulder was to pay the defendant a monthly payment, similar to a mortgage.

As time went on, Mulder had a difficult time paying the defendant back. The monthly payments were lowered, but he still couldn’t afford to pay them. Mulder then got the idea to repackage medication that was sent back from nursing homes and foster homes, although federal regulations required that these drugs be destroyed.