Were you prescribed the incorrect medication?
Prescription Medication errors are a form of medical negligence. When the incorrect medication is prescribed or dispensed and it results in harm to a patient, the responsible party can be held accountable.
What is a Prescription Medication error?
There are various types of prescription drug errors. Common examples of how this can happen include:
- Dispensing the incorrect dose or type of medication;
- Administering the wrong medication to a patient;
- Administering the wrong dosage of medication (i.e., too much or too little medication);
- Incorrect labelling of medication;
- Prescribing a medication that the patient is allergic to;
- Prescribing a medication that interacts negatively with other medications that the patient is taking; and
- Failing to warn the patient of common side effects of the medication.
Who can be held accountable for Prescription Medication errors?
Any person involved in prescribing, dispensing and administering a medication can be liable for prescription drug errors. This includes doctors, nurses, hospitals, the pharmacy departments in hospitals, pharmacists, and the pharmaceutical manufacturer. The question will be who had made the mistake. There are protocols and procedures in place that should be followed to prevent incidents such as this occurring.
Administering the wrong medication or incorrect dosage
Medical practitioners and nurses can be liable for prescribing and/or administering the wrong medication. They can simply make a mistake about what medication should be prescribed or what dosage to prescribe. It can be shockingly easy to administer the wrong amount of medication by making a typing or reading error.
There are also various different ways in which medications have to be administered. Medications could be designed to be given orally, intravenously, anally or vaginally. Even the administration of something as commonplace as eye drops or creams should be done correctly. Knowledge of how medication should be administered is also important. If the medication is to be administered by injection or intravenously via a drip, a nurse might give the shot in the wrong place. Different drugs have to be injected into the body in different places. For example, some drugs must be injected in muscles, while others have to be injected directly into the bloodstream.
Medical practitioners and nurses could be held liable if something as simple as bad handwriting leads to a patient suffering harm. Bad handwriting on prescriptions is a serious matter. If the pharmacist misreads the prescription, the patient can receive the wrong medication, and whoever wrote the prescription could be held liable (or the pharmacist could be liable for failing to verify what the prescription actually says). Luckily, with most health care providers having switched to computer systems and electronic prescriptions, this kind of error is increasingly rare.
Incorrect labelling of medication
Sometimes, medications are labelled incorrectly. This can happen either before the medication leaves the manufacturer or at the pharmacy when it is dispensed. The patient could receive the wrong medication or the wrong dosage. If the manufacturer or retailer mislabels the medication, that could result in a product liability lawsuit. If the pharmacist mislabels the medication, that could lead to a legitimate medical malpractice case.
Prescribing harmful medication (Allergies and interaction)
This type of prescription medication error usually occurs due to the fault of the pharmacist. It is generally the pharmacist’s job to keep track of a patient’s allergies and all medications the patient is taking (to avoid harmful interactions between more than one medication), although your doctor should have this information as well. This may be harder to check and control if your doctor or pharmacist does not have a proper history of your medications or conditions. It is important for patients to inform their doctors if they are aware that they have specific allergies such as to penicillin.
Compensation in a Prescription Medication error case
The impact of a prescription drug error can range from minimal to fatal, depending on the outcome of the error. You may suffer temporary side effects or discomfort due to the incorrect medication, but in the best case scenario you may make a full recovery with no lasting damage. In more serious situations incorrect medication may lead to permanent damage to your organs (kidney or heart failure) resulting in life long medical conditions and the need for medical intervention or procedures.
If you suspect that you received the wrong medication, you should contact your pharmacist and your physician at once and follow their instructions. If you believe you were the victim of a prescription drug error and you’ve suffered serious harm as a result, it is best to discuss your situation with an experienced medical malpractice lawyer. For more information you can contact us at Paul du Plessis Attorneys at 012 809 1588 or send an e-mail to paul@pauldup.co.za