Pharmacy Error Injury Lawyer Blog

Protecting Yourself against Serious Pharmacy Errors

February 19, 2016 | Lebowitz & Mzhen

Chances are most people have heard of or read about someone being provided the wrong prescription or the wrong dose of a medication when they go to pick up their prescription from a retail pharmacy. In fact, these errors are quite common, with some estimates of the number of errors per year reaching into the millions. However, there are some things that people can do to help protect themselves against a pharmacist’s mistake.

According to a recent article, the best way to think about preventing a pharmacy error is to think about each phase in which the system can break down, potentially leading to an error. Thus, the article discusses the three main locations where a patient should take a few extra steps to ensure their safety.

At the Doctor’s Office

Knowledge is key in the doctor’s office. Knowing which drug a doctor is prescribing for a patient will help a patient be able to identify if they are provided with a different medication. However, knowing why a patient is being prescribed a medication is also important. If the doctor includes the reason for the prescription in the text of the prescription, the pharmacist is much less likely to make an error by providing the wrong medication.

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.

The Nurse’s Role in Preventing Hospital and Nursing Home Pharmacy Errors

February 1, 2016 | Lebowitz & Mzhen

When most people think of a pharmacy error, they think of a retail pharmacist providing the wrong drug to a patient who then takes it up to the register, checks out, and goes home to take the medication in their own home. However, this only accounts for a portion of the prescriptions that are filled each day in the United States. In fact, countless other prescriptions are provided to hospital patients and nursing home residents.

Unlike prescriptions filled at a retail pharmacy, prescriptions that are filled in a hospital have a few added layers of protection in place to prevent against the patient being provided the wrong medication. For example, after a doctor writes a prescription to a hospital patient, and the pharmacy fills the prescription, a nurse must obtain the medication and deliver it to the patient. This is a critical role that allows for the nurse to act as a final line of defense against serious or fatal prescription errors.

However, despite all the precautions in the world, sometimes errors will occur. When a prescription error does occur, it may result in very serious injuries or even death in some cases. Under Maryland law, the victims of these mistakes can look to the legal system for help through a pharmacy error lawsuit.

Lawsuits Against Manufacturers of Dangerous Medications

January 25, 2016 | Lebowitz & Mzhen

When a patient goes to the doctor and is given a prescription, one of the first things the patient is likely to ask is “what are the potential side effects?” Indeed, most pharmaceutical drugs have side effects of some kind, ranging from the mild to the more severe. In some cases, there is even the risk of serious injury or death.

Ultimately, the choice is left up to the patient to weigh the risks of taking the medication against continuing to suffer from their current ailment. However, when a drug company markets its drug in a misleading fashion, the patient cannot make an educated decision about the pros and cons of taking the prescription mediation.

In these types of cases, it is possible that a patient who is hurt after taking a medication can sue the drug manufacturer, alleging one of several available theories. In essence, many personal injury claims based on dangerous pharmaceuticals allege that, had the patient known the real dangers of taking the medication at the time, they would not have taken it. Of course, these cases are quite complex and often rely on medical and scientific expert testimony to prove the necessary causation element.

The Ease of Obtaining an Opioid Prescription, Even After an Overdose

January 18, 2016 | Lebowitz & Mzhen

The use of prescription opioid painkillers has soared over the past few years. In fact, according to one recent news article, the number of prescriptions for opioid painkillers has increased more than 300 percent over the past 15 years. While the medication may be helpful to those suffering from severe pain, this increase in the prevalence of addictive and dangerous medication has led to an increase in the number of addictions and overdoses. Additionally, the prevalence and ease of obtaining prescription painkillers can also act as a “gateway” to heroin, which is a cheaper and more effective drug for those addicted to opioid painkillers.

Physician Liability for Painkiller Overdoses

While it is legally possible for a physician to be held accountable in a court of law for negligently prescribing addictive painkillers to a patient, it is not exceedingly common. This is for a number of reasons. First, there must be some “harm” suffered by the patient. This generally requires more than an addiction to a prescription drug. However, if a patient overdoses and is seriously injured or dies as a result of the overdose, that may satisfy the damages requirement.

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.

Recalled Drugs and Pharmacy Liability

January 4, 2016 | Lebowitz & Mzhen

Pharmacies are places people go to get better. When a patient walks into a pharmacy with an ailment, they expect that they will be able to obtain the relief they need, either by speaking with a pharmacist about their condition or by selecting the over-the-counter medication that fits their specific needs. However, both prescription and over-the-counter drugs are commonly recalled for causing various side effects, ranging from the uncomfortable to the life-threatening.

Of course, a pharmacy may not know that a medication they are selling to their patients is harmful. However, there is a duty imposed on pharmacy owners and pharmacists to familiarize themselves with the latest recalls and product news about the medications they stock and sell. If someone is injured by a product, the injured patient may be able to seek monetary compensation from not only the manufacturer of the drug but also anyone else in the chain of distribution, including the pharmacy that sold them the medication.

Appellate Court Holds Pharmaceutical Company Need Only Warn Physician of Side Effects; No Duty to Warn Patients

December 30, 2015 | Lebowitz & Mzhen

Earlier this month, the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals decided a case reinforcing the laws surrounding whom the manufacturer of a medication must warn about the potentially dangerous side effects of the medication. In the case, Yates v. Ortho-McNeil-Janssen Pharma., Inc., the Court ultimately determined that the duty to warn extends only to the physician, and not to the patient. Thus, the patient’s case against the drug manufacturer was properly dismissed by a lower court.

Yates v. Ortho-McNeil-Janssen Pharma., Inc.

The plaintiff was a sexually active woman who was suffering from extreme menstrual cramps and consulted her doctor about potential medications that may help her. The doctor told her of two choices, ORTHO-EVRA and Depo-Provera. The doctor warned the plaintiff that there was some risk of blood clotting and stroke with ORTHO-EVRA, and the plaintiff decided to first try Depo-Provera.

After a few months, the plaintiff noticed she had gained weight, which was a side effect of Depo-Provera. She consulted her doctor, who again advised her of the risks associated with ORTHO-EVRA, and this time she decided to give it a try. The plaintiff suffered a stroke during the application of her first weekly patch. The woman filed a lawsuit against ORTHA-EVRA’s manufacturer, alleging that the company did not adequately warn her of the risks involved with taking the medication.

Information Is Key to Preventing Pharmacy Errors

December 16, 2015 | Lebowitz & Mzhen

Pharmacy errors occur at an alarming rate across the United States. In fact, according to the Center for Disease Control, there are approximately 1.3 million people who are injured each year by an error made in the pharmacy setting. These errors range in both severity and cause, but the bottom line is that they are almost all due to an overburdened pharmacist making a mistake in the heat of the moment.

Although most pharmacy errors are complete accidents or oversights, that does not excuse the negligent pharmacist from fault. In fact, Maryland law allows for any person who is harmed by a pharmacist’s negligence to recover compensation for their injuries and emotional distress through a personal injury lawsuit.

There are several common scenarios that give rise to serious pharmacy errors, including when a pharmacist provides the wrong type of medication to the patient, provides the right drug but the wrong dose or strength of the medication, provides the wrong dosage instructions, fails to warn the patient of interactions with commonly taken over-the-counter medications or other known prescriptions, or fails to advise the patient of expected or possible side effects of the medication.

Statutes of Limitations in Pharmacy Error Cases

December 9, 2015 | Lebowitz & Mzhen

Almost all personal injury cases must be brought within a certain amount of time. The laws that set forth the specific amount of time in each type of case are called statutes of limitations. A plaintiff’s failure to bring a suit in the applicable amount of time under the statute of limitations can mean that the plaintiff forever loses the ability to bring that case.

Maryland Pharmacy Error Cases

Under Maryland law, personal injury and medical malpractice cases must be brought within either three or five years, depending on the specific circumstances of the alleged injury and when it was discovered by the plaintiff. Under the general rule, a lawsuit must be brought within three years of the discovery of the injury. However, no claims will be allowed after five years of the date of the injury.

When the “clock” starts ticking is sometimes up to interpretation. For example, in some pharmacy error or medical malpractice cases, the plaintiff’s injury is not immediately apparent. In these cases, the plaintiff will have up to five years from the time the injury occurred to bring the lawsuit. Importantly, this may be different from when the injury was discovered by the plaintiff.