Atlanta Injury Lawyers Blog

Every year, approximately 100,000 people are killed from prescription errors. We lose far fewer people to highway accidents every year, and yet, there is far more federal money spent in preventing highway traffic fatalities.

Eliminating human error from the doctor-pharmacist-patient chain may be hard, but not impossible. In the meantime, there are steps that you can take to prevent the 10 most common prescription errors.

According to Caring.com, the 10 most common prescription errors are:

Continue reading "Top 10 Prescription Errors and How to Prevent These" »

A study published in the May issue of the journal Pediatrics says that Spanish-speaking people in the United States are a higher risk of injury from prescription errors, because of poor translation. These errors are occurring in large numbers, because the computer programs that pharmacies rely on to translate prescriptions, are vastly inadequate.

The researchers surveyed several pharmacies in the New York City area. They found that four out of every five pharmacies, depended on computers to translate prescriptions. Almost all of them claimed that they got the prescriptions rechecked manually, but the researchers found far too many errors in translation.

Continue reading "Poorly Translated Prescriptions Increase Error Risks" »

Atlanta Pharmacies are subject to regulation by the Georgia Board of Pharmacy. As an experienced Georgia injury lawyer, I have handled a number of prescription misfill cases that have resolved successfully. Today, I will break down the basics of a pharmacy malpractice case in Georgia.

What is the basis for a Georgia Pharmacy Malpractice claim? Under the requirements of the Georgia Board of Pharmacy, a pharmacist is trained as to the proper dosage of drugs, and has available to her the same texts and references as those utilized by doctors. These references clearly cover potential drug interactions, side effects and warnings for each drug.

What is the pharmacist's duty? A pharmacist is responsible for interpreting prescriptions and to consult with the prescriber (the doctor) if there is any doubt as to the prescription. Potential doubt includes not being certain about which medication is being prescribed, at what dose and how it should be applied. Any doubt should be resolved by the pharmacist communicating with the doctor to ascertain this information.

The pharmacist's failure to comply with this duty to interpret leads to most prescription misfills and related malpractice claims against pharmacists and the drug stores for whom they work. [In Atlanta, Georgia, most prescriptions are filled by Walgreens, CVS, Target, RiteAid, Kroger or Publix. Although quite a few more are filled at pharmacies located inside hospitals].

When a prescription is filled incorrectly due to misinterpretation of the prescription, the pharmacist generally is at fault because the pharmacist is the last link in the drug distribution channel. In other words, the pharmacist has the last chance to catch any error. Almost every pharmacist malpractice case that I have handled as a Georgia injury lawyer could have been prevented if the pharmacist had simply taken the time to verify the prescription with the patient or double checking to make sure the drug being dispensed is appropriate to treat the patient's condition. The failure to do this is the foundation of almost all malpractice suits against Atlanta area pharmacies.