Lazarus Law Florida Personal Injury and Family Law Blog

The pharmaceutical industry produces billions in revenue each year. Residents of South Florida spend top dollar on the best-named brands for their ailments. A recent article reported a major development in the next two years that could save you money, but could end up costing you your health.

The Los Angeles Times reported that 6 of the 10 top prescription drugs will be losing their patents. Among those drugs are Lipitor, Plavix and Enbrel. With the end of their patents approaching, drug companies will pounce on the opportunity to make the drugs.

While more generics will mean more savings, it may also mean more risk for injury from a medication accident. This means that along with the dangers of pharmaceutical error and medical negligence, consumers could potentially be injured from a sub-standard, defective product. While the story noted that the FDA maintains that generic drugs have the same quality, it also pointed out that 81 people in the U.S. and Germany died from taking a generic blood thinner made by Baxter Healthcare. Furthermore, a report from John Hopkins University researchers stated that there is a 10% chance that switching to an anti-epilepsy generic drug would change the concentration that the medication reaches once it is in the body.

It is imperative that developments in medicine lead to better medicine at a more affordable price without leading to injury or illness. Drug companies must be held accountable for making quality products which are safe for consumers.

South Florida is home to some of the best health care facilities in the nation. Patients, both young and old, rely on the expertise of medical professionals and pharmaceutical experts to ensure that they get the best treatment without having to worry about suffering from a pharmaceutical error. One mistake by a nurse in Seattle led not only to the death of an 8-month-old girl, but also to the nurse’s suicide and pointed out the continued dangers of pharmaceutical negligence.

MSNBC reported on the story in late June, in which a nurse gave a baby 1.4 grams of calcium chloride instead of 140 milligrams. The article also pointed out a few startling statistics about pharmaceutical errors. Notably, 1 in 7 Medicare patients suffer serious harm because of medical errors and hospital infections each year, and 180,000 patients die. Furthermore, a Washington University researcher found that 92% of the doctors surveyed said that they’d experienced a near miss, a minor error or a serious error, while 57% confessed to a serious mistake. The nurse was eventually let go and the hospital noted that it followed a “Just Culture” model which “use[s] errors to identify and correct systemic problems, rather than focusing on penalizing individuals.”

So is Just Culture the best method for pharmaceutical error prevention? Studies have shown that other tactics like e-prescriptions give the same rate of error as handwritten prescriptions. Firing employees who commit errors may resolve short-term problems, but as the statistics show, long-term issues still persist and factors such as similar names of prescriptions will ultimately increase the likelihood of error. Other methods must be implemented to reduce the risk of error in hospitals and pharmacies.

The safety of our community is important to us. Medical professionals and pharmacies in South Florida must be held accountable to improve protocol and do everything they can to prevent pharmaceutical negligence. Contact our office and consult with a Florida pharmaceutical negligence attorney if you’ve been injured from a pharmaceutical error.

A recent warning from the FDA has highlighted a common mistake made by pharmacists: confusion of drug names.

Mixing up prescriptions due to the similarity of drug names is a common pharmaceutical error, and it’s something that Floridians should be aware of when heading to their local drug store. According to MedPage Today, the FDA issued a warning in June due to the 226 reports it received from confusing Risperidone (Risperdal), which is an antipsychotic, with Ropinirole (Requip), which treats Parkinson’s disease and Restless Legs Syndrome. These errors resulted in five individuals being hospitalized.

In its report, the FDA noted that some of the factors causing confusion were similar packaging, illegible handwriting of the prescription, and overlapping product characteristics, such as strength and dosage. It is important to understand that any pharmaceutical prescription error has the potential to cause serious illness and/ or death.

So the next time that you pick up your prescription, remember to carefully read the label carefully and inspect the actual medication to determine that the medication is actually used to treat your condition, especially with generics. In addition, don’t be afraid to ask your physician and your pharmacist about the uses of your medication. By taking a few precautions, you can reduce the risk of being a victim of pharmaceutical negligence.

These days, everything has gone electronic: banking, shopping, and even important documents are being transmitted through the internet. A recent study, however, of e-prescriptions (medical prescriptions sent electronically) shows that technology may not be the answer for preventing pharmaceutical errors in Florida.

Medical News Today reported on a study from the Journal of American Medical Information Association , in which Karen Nanji, M.D. evaluated over 3,800 e-prescriptions from pharmacy chains in Florida, Arizona and Massachusetts. The study found that the 11.7 percent of the prescriptions had mistakes, which researchers note is no better than the rate of error in handwritten prescriptions. The numbers show that a majority of the errors – 60.7 percent – were omissions of frequency, dosage and duration. Notably, there were about 190,000 physicians last year who were e-prescribing.

The results of this study are quite disappointing, considering that doctors have received Medicare bonuses for e-prescribing and that e-prescribing was supposed to save money and prevent pharmaceutical errors. Technology alone cannot ensure the health and safety of our loved ones. Other measures need to be taken to prevent these errors.

Pharmaceutical errors can lead to dangerous, even fatal, results. If you or someone you know has been injured due to a prescription error, consult with an attorney.