Pharmacy Error Injury Lawyer Blog

Woman’s Depression Worsens after Being Provided the Wrong Medication

November 24, 2015 | Lebowitz & Mzhen

Earlier this month in New Zealand, a woman who was traveling throughout the country suffered worsening depression and potentially other long-term side effects after a pharmacist provided her with the wrong medication. According to one local news source, the woman went to see a general practice doctor who refilled her prescription of an SSRI medication used to treat her depression.

Evidently, the woman took the refill to a nearby pharmacy to get it filled. However, the filling pharmacist provided the woman with Duride instead of the SSRI medication. Duride is a cardiac medication typically used to treat angina. The error, however, was not immediately discovered. It took some time for the woman to notice a worsening in her depression. She began to once again suffer from anxiety, migraines, and heart palpitations. Her relationship broke down, and she was unable to find a job. She eventually went back to the doctor, who upon seeing the packaging of the medication she was taking, immediately knew it was not the SSRI she had been prescribed.

The doctor notified the pharmacy of the error. The pharmacist has since told reporters that there was “no explanation” for the mix-up. He also noted that, at the time of the error, the two medications had similar packaging and were near each other on the shelf. The pharmacist took full responsibility, noting that the pharmacy technician that day was not involved in the error, and he also apologized to the patient for the error.

Birth Control Mix Up Results in 113 Unintended Pregnancies, Lawsuit Follows

November 16, 2015 | Lebowitz & Mzhen

Earlier this month, a lawsuit was filed in Philadelphia, alleging that improperly packaged birth control medication resulted in over 100 unplanned and unintended pregnancies. According to one national news source, the drugs involved are Cyclafem, Emoquette, Gildess, Orsythia, Previfem, and Tri-Previfem.

Evidently, the birth control medication was packaged incorrectly, decreasing the drug’s effectiveness in preventing pregnancy. Normally, birth control medication comes in a blister pack, one pill for each day of the month. Twenty-one of the pills contain hormones that prevent pregnancy, and seven of the pills are a placebo. Women taking the medication are supposed to take it in order, without mixing the hormone pills with the placebo pills. By incorrectly packaging the drug and mixing up the order of the pills, the plaintiffs allege that the manufacturer of the medication was negligent and that its negligence resulted in the unplanned pregnancies.

A few days prior to the filing of this lawsuit, a similar one was filed in Georgia. However, the judge hearing that case denied the plaintiffs’ request to be certified as a class in order to proceed as a class action lawsuit. The judge explained that “each plaintiff must show in an individualized manner which ‘physical symptoms’ she suffered, her medical history, and whether her use of any allegedly defective product resulted in these physical symptoms or a pregnancy.” Since each of the women’s situations was different, the judge declined the request to certify the class.

Pharmacy Hands Out Bipolar Medication to Trick-or-Treaters

November 9, 2015 | Lebowitz & Mzhen

Late last month on Halloween, a Canadian pharmacy accidentally provided medication used to treat bipolar disorder to young trick-or-treaters who visited the store. According to one local news source that covered the story, seven children are known to have actually taken the medication in place of candy. However, all of the pills were located before they were consumed by the children.

Evidently, the pharmacy had a candy bin out on the pharmacy counter so that young trick-or-treaters could help themselves as their parents conducted their business. However, at some point in the day, a customer who was visiting the pharmacy to fill her 17-year-old son’s prescription for quetiapine and divalproex inadvertently dropped the medication on the floor prior to leaving.

Another customer, thinking she was preventing a potential mix-up, picked up the medication off the floor and put it on the counter, next to the candy bin. Shortly afterward, a pharmacy employee saw the pills sitting next to the bin and then dumped them into the candy bin. Seven of the individually wrapped pills were given out to children over the course of the day before management discovered what had occurred.

New Study Shows Post-Op Medication Errors More Common than Previously Thought

November 2, 2015 | Lebowitz & Mzhen

Earlier last month, a new study was released that claims post-operation medication errors can occur in as many as one in every two patients. According to one local news source that covered the new study, the study was performed at Massachusetts General Hospital and looked at roughly 275 surgeries.

The results came back indicating that in the post-operation setting some kind of human error or “adverse event” occurred in about 50% of all patients. Prescriptions that were filled in the hospital showed an error rate of about 5%. Most of the prescription errors fell into several categories: incorrect dosing, drug documentation problems, drug labeling mistakes, and improperly documenting patients’ vital signs. Researchers believe that about 80% of the errors they found could be classified as “preventable,” had appropriate measures been taken.

The researchers found that about 5% of those patients who were provided a wrong medication or dose had “negative effects” from the administration of the drug. Two-thirds of the errors were considered “serious,”and 2% of the errors were classified as “life threatening.”

Medication Error Results in $12.2 Million Verdict

October 29, 2015 | Lebowitz & Mzhen

Earlier this month in Oregon, a jury awarded a man’s personal representative $12.2 million for the man’s injuries, which included severe brain damage after he was administered a dose that was 15 times stronger than prescribed. According to one local news report, the alleged medical malpractice took place back in 2011, when the man was provided medication to help his heartbeat stabilize.

Evidently, the anesthesiologist in charge of the man’s care provided him with a dose of 2,700 milligrams of amiodarone instead of the 150-milligram dose that was prescribed by the surgeon. As a result, the man suffered severe brain damage. The court appointed a conservator, who filed a medical malpractice case against the hospital, the anesthesiologist, and the agency that contracted the anesthesiologist to the hospital.

At trial, it came out that the anesthesiologist misread some figures on a hospital computer screen and grabbed three 900-milliliter bottles, thinking they were just 50-milliliter bottles.

Pharmacists’ Performance Evaluation Metric Acts Like a “Quota System” to Reward Speed Over Precision

October 19, 2015 | Lebowitz & Mzhen

Pharmacies, like other businesses, are operated for profit, and labor is one of the main expenses for a pharmacy. Therefore, a pharmacy that hopes to remain profitable will likely try and provide only enough pharmacists who will be able to fill the prescriptions for the patients who come through the door. Excess pharmacists means the pharmacy is losing money in labor costs.

However, as one recent industry news source points out, the evaluation metric being used by some pharmacies feels a lot like a quota system where pharmacists are pressured into fill prescriptions as quickly as possible. This, of course, could have a detrimental effect on the pharmacist’s accuracy.

Pharmacy Errors Across the Country

Each year, there are an estimated one million medication errors that occur throughout the United States. Of those patients that are provided with an inaccurate medication, about 7,000 will die each year. This makes prescription errors one of the top 10 leading causes of death in the country.

Nurse Administered 70 Flu Shots with the Same Syringe

October 14, 2015 | Lebowitz & Mzhen

Earlier this month in New Jersey, a nurse who arrived at an employer’s office to provide influenza vaccinations to the employees made a “gross oversight” and reused the same syringe for all 70 vaccinations. According to one local news report, the nurse also failed to administer the proper dose of the vaccine to many of the people whom she was supposed to vaccinate.

Evidently, the nurse did change the needles between each patient but not the syringe. The health risk has been classified as “low,” but all employees who were given a vaccine were encouraged to get an HIV and Hepatitis test to make sure they did not contract either of the serious and potentially life-changing diseases.

Employees were also informed to get another flu vaccine, since the nurse improperly dosed each of the vaccines, reducing the vaccine’s effectiveness.

Pharmacist Mistakenly Provides Chemotherapy Drug to Elderly Patient and Then Tries To Cover Up His Mistake

October 7, 2015 | Lebowitz & Mzhen

Earlier this month in New Zealand, a pharmacist was reprimanded by the governing professional board after it was discovered that he made an error in providing a patient with the wrong medication and then tried to cover up his mistake. According to one industry news source, the pharmacist accidentally provided an elderly patient with a chemotherapy drug rather than his prescribed immunosuppressant medication.

Evidently, the elderly patient had recently undergone a kidney transplant and was prescribed an immunosuppressant as a part of his recovery. However, when the man went to fill the prescription, he was provided a chemotherapy drug instead. It was not until three weeks later that the man returned, asking the pharmacist why his pills had changed, that the pharmacist discovered that there may have been an error. He told the patient to stop taking the drug.

Upon investigating the error, the filling pharmacist discovered that he was the one who had filled the prescription. Once he realized that he had made the error, the pharmacist failed to report the error. The Deputy Health and Disability Commissioner, who oversees pharmacists, explained to reporters that the pharmacist should have provided the patient with counseling as well as reported the error. It was not until the pharmacy owner later discovered that the chemotherapy drug supply was depleted that management knew there had been an error. He then made the appropriate report.

FDA Changes Labels on Anti-Bacterial Drug Due to Potential for Easy Mix-Up

September 29, 2015 | Lebowitz & Mzhen

Earlier this month, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announced a warning regarding the confusing packaging on the intravenous antibacterial drug Avycaz. According to one industry news source, the announcement was made after there were several reports of errors made in the dosing of the drug to patients. Evidently, the strength of the medication that was listed on the outside of the carton or vial was difficult to decipher for pharmacy personnel.

The confusion apparently arose because of the way that the label listed which substances were actually contained inside each package. Avycaz contains two active ingredients, ceftazidime and avibactam. The previous labels list each separate ingredient and its amount next to the drug’s name. For example Avycaz 2g/.5g means that the drug contained 2g of ceftazidime and .5g of avibactam. The new label will be more descriptive, explaining that the package contains a total of 2.5g of medication, which consists of 2g of ceftazidime and .5g of avibactam.

The Reported Errors

According to the article, there had been three reported errors since the drug’s approval back in February of this year. Two of the errors occurred as the drug was being prepared by the pharmacist, while the third arose due to the confusion in the language on the drug’s packaging. The FDA reported that at least one patient received and ingested a higher-than-prescribed dose, but there had been no adverse effects reported.

New Study Looks at Error Rates in Hospital Pharmacies

September 22, 2015 | Lebowitz & Mzhen

Earlier this month, a study was released in the American Journal of Health Systems Pharmacy that looked at error rates in hospital pharmacies. Specifically, the study considered the link between the number of incoming orders over the course of a given shift and the prescription error rate. Not surprisingly, the results of the study indicated that the busier the pharmacy, the more likely that there would be a pharmacy error made.

The study took place in Houston, Texas, between July 1, 2011 and June 30, 2012. Over the course of the study, over 1.9 million prescriptions were filled by about 50 pharmacists. In total, there were 92 prescription errors recorded.