Pharmacy Error Injury Lawyer Blog
It is clear that patients are put in danger by simple things such as penmanship and the use of inconsistent abbreviations. This must change. Maryland pharmacy negligence attorneys work with clients to hold negligent pharmacist responsible for the injuries that they cause across the state.
Your doctor hands you a prescription that you quickly take to your local pharmacy to fill. You look down at the unintelligible handwriting and find that it looks like a foreign language full of jumbled, incomprehensible abbreviations. Doctors, physician’s assistants, and other medical professionals often use abbreviations on prescriptions in order to save time. Too often, unfortunately, pharmacists misinterpret abbreviations used on prescriptions and, as a result, Maryland patients are put at risk of injury or death caused by improperly filled prescriptions. From January 2000 to August 2004, 498 health care facilities reported 19,000 medication errors caused by a pharmacist’s misinterpretation of another doctor’s short hand.
A pharmacist in Virginia misread a doctor’s abbreviation and dispensed two times the proper amount of heparin to a patient. As a result, the victim suffered a massive hemorrhage. The pharmacy ultimately settled the plaintiff’s case for $200,000.
If you or a loved one has suffered as a result of a negligently filled prescription, please contact the pharmacy negligence attorneys of Lebowitz & Mzhen Personal Injury Lawyers.