Can Pharmacists and Pharmacies Be Sued for Medical Malpractice?

Can Pharmacists and Pharmacies Be Sued for Medical Malpractice?

Medical malpractice cases involve medical chart review to determine the extent of the injury. Pharmacists could also be held liable for medical malpractice.

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Pharmacists who dispense medications may also find themselves caught in a medical malpractice lawsuit. Personal injury and medical malpractice lawsuits lean heavily on medical chart review to extract the important medical facts. To ensure accuracy and ease the process, lawyers handling such cases rely on medical review services. Medication errors can cause serious harm to people and even result in death. According to the National Institutes of Health, 7 million people die annually from preventable medication errors. These errors also cost the nation $21 billion in additional healthcare costs.

Let us look at some alarming statistics in this regard, as compiled by the Network for Excellence in Health Innovation (NEHI). 

Medication errors result in 3.8 million inpatient admissions and 3.3 million outpatient visits in the U.S.

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The Institute of Medicine estimates that preventable medication errors cause 7,000 deaths in the U.S annually.

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Preventable inpatient medication errors cost $16.4 billion annually.

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Preventable outpatient medication errors cost $4.2 billion every year.

The question is how prescription medication errors amount to medical malpractice. In fact, medication errors are a form of medical malpractice. You can sue a pharmacist for malpractice if the medication error resulted in a serious injury. Four conditions must be met if you are to bring a medical malpractice lawsuit against a pharmacist.

1. The pharmacist has a duty to care for the patient: A professional must fill the prescription correctly as ordered by the physician.

2. The pharmacy/pharmacist failed in its duty of care: The patient has to show that the dispensed medicine was not the prescribed one. For this, the testimony of medical experts that the pharmacy made a mistake is important.

3. The patient suffered harm because of this error: It must be demonstrated that the medication error resulted in the injury.

4. The patient sustained specific injuries because of the medication error: The mistake made by the pharmacy can result in long-term injury or even death.

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Medication mislabelled at the pharmacy may come under the responsibility of the pharmacist or pharmacy. Similarly, filing or instructing a patient to use the wrong dosage could also fall under the pharmacy’s or pharmacist’s responsibility.

What are the common reasons for such medication errors? 

Poor communication between members of the staff

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Medical abbreviations

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Illegible writing

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Confusing product names

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Confusing directions

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Inadequate knowledge regarding medications or inadequate experience

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Poor workplace training, procedures or techniques

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Job-related stress

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Lack of standardized protocols

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Ineffective resources

Here are the most frequent medication errors associated with pharmacies/pharmacists. 

Wrong prescription dosage: The National Priorities Partnership and National Quality Forum points out that dosage errors cause 37% of all prescription drug-related errors.

Transcription errors are the reason for 15% of all dispensing-related mistakes.

Pharmacists may issue the right drug, but the wrong dosage. Carelessness and illegible handwriting account for transcription errors.

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Wrong drug: The Pharmacy Times says dispensing errors are the cause of 21% of all medication errors. The pharmacist may give the wrong drug to a patient, and this medical mistake is the leading cause of pharmaceutical malpractice in the U.S. The reasons for this mistake include: pharmacists multitasking and becoming distracted; they may accidentally switch the labels on two medications; dispense the wrong prescriptions because of drugs having similar names and looking identical.

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Not reviewing patients’ medications: This could in some instances harm or even kill patients. When healthcare professionals fail to review medications, patients could

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consume medicines that cause dangerous interactions with other prescriptions. Or, patients may take drugs to which they are allergic. 

Wrong drug label or directions: Incorrect medication instructions provided by a healthcare professional could lead to a patient receiving fatal dosages. The pharmacy could also switch a drug’s warning label inadvertently. Or, pharmacists may not sometimes check the instructions to see if they are correct. Such errors can prove dangerous or even fatal to the patient. Wrong labels can also result in dispensing the wrong medication. It could produce overdose or underdose mistakes, toxicity and death.

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Inefficient consultation: Pharmacists must surely speak to patients about the prescriptions they are taking. This will also help the pharmacists learn about the patients’ medications and alerts them to possible drug interactions. However, many pharmacists do not counsel the patients who come to them. If they did so, they could avoid many dispensing mistakes.

In a prescription drug error claim, plaintiffs can recover damages for pain and suffering, medical bills, lost wages, and long-term care. The compensation amount would depend on the severity of injuries and the monetary damages incurred by the plaintiff. To determine the seriousness and the impact caused by the medical error, medical malpractice lawyers review the plaintiff’s medical records preferably using medical review services. Since medical malpractice extends beyond the treating physician to pharmacists and other healthcare professionals attending on the patient, it is important that pharmacists perform a clinical check of all prescriptions as part of their clinical duties and also when dispensing drugs. This will help minimize the risk of prescribing errors. Often, the information contained in an individual prescription may be insufficient and therefore they should obtain additional information from the patient or caregiver, and the patient record if that is available. When prescribing errors are more clearly reported, it will ensure continuous improvement and reduced risk.

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