| Arleen Lazarus | 0 Comments | Florida Pharmacy Error Attorneys | , ,

Dangerous Pharmacies – Woman Charged with Impersonating Pharmacist

Pharmacy Negligence and Malpractice

Sometimes you just have to say out loud, “How does something like that happen?”

Walgreen’s recently settled with authorities in California after a woman was criminally charged with impersonating a pharmacist. Allegedly she used the license numbers of other pharmacists to work in more than one pharmacy from 2006 to 2017 and no one caught on according to a story by the Associated Press. It’s inconceivable that someone Pharmacy Negligence Attorneys Floridacould get away with this for even one hour, much less several years.

The phony pharmacist was charged will filling over 745,000 prescriptions and many of them were for opioids such as fentanyl and morphine. Some opioids, in very small amounts, can quickly kill a human being.

We can only hope that it’s very rare for an impostor to successfully gain access to a licensed pharmacy, all the drugs, and patient records contained therein, but if it happened even once it shows there is a lack of diligence, due care, proper procedures, and protocol on the part of the pharmacy.

We have been representing people hurt by pharmacy errors, negligence, and malpractice for 25 years and we urge everyone who does business with any pharmacy to closely scrutinize their medications. Make sure what you receive is what your physician intended. Take time to speak with your pharmacists and ask them to double check your medication each time you visit the pharmacy.

Everyone is capable of making a mistake, but our experience has taught us that when dealing with pharmacies there are often not enough steps to absolutely insure that all prescriptions are properly dispensed.

If you have any questions about a situation involving your medication, your doctor, nurse, or pharmacy we are here to help. We can be reached 7 days a week at (954) 356-0006.

 

 

 

Florida Pharmacy Error Attorneys
| Arleen Lazarus | 0 Comments | Florida Pharmacy Error Attorneys | ,

Drive-Thru Danger at the Pharmacy – Florida Pharmacy Error Attorneys Lazarus and Lazarus

Florida Pharmacy Error Attorneys

If you go to the drive-thru at McDonald’s and they give you the wrong burger, it’s not the end of the world. But a mistake at the pharmacy drive-thru might cause you real pain, suffering, and perhaps even death.

Americans filled a record 5.8 billion prescriptions in 2018 — at a rate of 17.6 prescriptions per person — up 2.7% over 2017, according to a report published at Medscape.com. Depending on how many pharmacists there are actually completing all those orders, it seems reasonable to assume that mistakes will be made, and they are.

Florida Pharmacy Error AttorneysIt’s important to understand that medication mistakes are made at different stages along the way after a patient is issued a prescription by a physician or a nurse practitioner in a hospital, at an office, or by phone or computer.

  1. Sometimes a specific details of a prescription are improperly read by the pharmacy or pharmacist. High volumes of orders may cause employees to be overloaded and they simply push the wrong button on the computer. Imagine someone hitting an extra zero and receiving 1000 mg of a medication instead of the 100 mg intended. These types of mistakes are supposed to be caught but sometimes they aren’t.
  2. Studies show that a common error at the pharmacy involves label errors. Incorrect labeling happens when the wrong label is put on a bottle of pills and it therefore goes to the wrong patient. Other common pharmacy errors include incorrect instructions to the patient on when and how often to take the medication.
  3. There are instances where a patient will not read the instructions completely or there will be a failure to understand the proper time and frequency directions from the doctor. This is why we urge people to take time to speak with the pharmacist and ask questions. Always make sure your doctor and your pharmacist are aware of all medications you take, including over-the-counter products, so they cam make sure there are adverse reactions.

Having a proper consultation with your pharmacist is where the issue of “drive-through” pharmacy windows becomes an issue. It is almost impossible to have a meaningful discussion with a pharmacist through a window. People behind you may be honking and it’s just not a system designed for accurate communication.

A Very Disturbing Pharmacy Error

According to the Pharmacy Times:

The clerk handling the transaction at a drive-through window of a community pharmacy in a Southern state erroneously gave 2 prescriptions for a patient with the same last name to the spouse of a patient. The patient suffered from Alzheimer disease, diabetes, and high blood pressure. The medications dispensed in error were alprazolam and sertraline. Those were administered to the patient by his wife at about 11 pm, and at 4 am, she heard him calling her name. She found him on the floor near the front door with nothing around that constituted a tripping hazard. Nothing in the area accounted for his fall.

He could not get up. An ambulance was called, and it was discovered at the emergency department that he had a broken hip, requiring emergency surgery.

If you think a mistake was made regarding prescription medication or that of a loved one, please feel free to call us and ask questions. We have been working for victims of pharmacy errors, medical malpractice, and other negligence since 1992 and we understand these situations. Let us recommend the best course of action because there is no acceptable mistake when it comes to medical care. Our number is 954-356-0006.

Prescription Errors
| Gary T. Lazarus | 0 Comments | Florida Pharmacy Error Attorneys

Pharmacy and Drug Company Errors – Confusion with Directions and Dosages Can Lead to Disaster

Prescription ErrorsImagine this scenario: Your child is sick and has a fever. You go to the store and purchase medicine recommended by the pharmacist, go home, and read the directions. The directions say to give 5 milliliters but the measuring cup is marked with lines that correspond to teaspoons. Could you possibly pour out 5 teaspoons and give that to your child? It’s possible, and mistakes like that are made every day which is why so many are hurt by both prescription and over-the-counter medications every day.

5 ml = 1.014 teaspoons so 5 teaspoons would be approximately 25 milliliters or 5 times what the proper dosage is.

This was in the news recently: One lot of Children’s Advil® Suspension, Bubble Gum Flavored Liquid bottles (4 fluid ounces) is being voluntarily recalled by Pfizer Consumer Healthcare, a division of Pfizer Inc. The recall was issued due to customer complaints that the dosage cup provided is marked in teaspoons, and the instructions on the label are described in milliliters, according to the FDA.

A pharmacy filling 250 prescriptions a day averages four mistakes according to National Observational Study of Prescription Dispensing Accuracy and Safety in 50 Pharmacies – Journal of the American Pharmaceutical Association. 48.3% of errors involved dispensing the wrong medication and 31.5% involved the wrong dosage.

Sometimes mistakes are made because of the thousands of different names assigned to different drugs, and many of them are similar. Sometimes mistakes happen because there are so many people involved in the chain that starts with a doctor or other healthcare worker writing a prescription, a pharmacy tech accepting the order and placing into a processing system, and a pharmacist dispensing the drugs. There is supposed to be a system of checks along the way, ending with a consultation when the medicine is picked up and paid for, but mistakes are made, like this one reported by www.pharmacytoday.org:

The technician made many errors transcribing the prescriptions. The most significant was confusing once-daily methotrexate for the metolazone that had been prescribed. The pharmacist approved the once-daily methotrexate, later explaining “for some reason I didn’t recognize the weekly versus daily. It didn’t click in my mind.” The pharmacy’s computer system did not flag the once-daily methotrexate dosing schedule.

The patient’s husband picked up the medication. He was asked if he had any questions, to which he replied no. No additional patient education was provided. The patient used the methotrexate daily as instructed on the label, and she died less than 1 month later from the effects of the drug.

A series of errors that could have and should have triggered a red flag and stopped the process and triggered a delay did not happen. As a patient, and we stress this constantly, you are ultimately the last defense against serious injuries from careless, negligent, or just over-worked healthcare professionals. It is crucial that you take the time to review each prescription you receive. Ask your doctor why you are being prescribed every medication. Ask for it’s intended outcome, how to pronounce the name of the drug, and ask about the dosage and directions. Ask for a consultation with the pharmacist when you pick up your medications and insist that everything is explained to you carefully.

Most pharmacies display a picture of what the medication should look like, so check to make sure you receive what you’re supposed to be getting.

Finally, if you think that you may have been the victim of an error by your doctor, your pharmacy or pharmacist, the drug company, or anyone else, we are here to help. We have been helping people hurt by pharmacy errors for over 25 years and we’re aware of how these problems usually happen. Call us at 954-356-0006 if you have questions.