Seattle Prescription Error Lawyers

What types of prescription errors do you handle?

The Food and Drug Administration states that The National Coordinating Council for Medication Error Prevention and Analysis (NCC MERP) defines a medication error as, “Any preventable event that may cause or lead to inappropriate medication use or patient harm while the medication is in the control of a healthcare provider, patient, or consumer.”

Some of the many types of medication/prescription errors our Seattle prescription errors handle include the following:

• Prescribing the wrong medication. There are two problems with prescribing the wrong medication. The first is that the patient is not receiving the medication they need to treat their disease, injury, or any other medical condition. This, at best, delays the time they receive the proper medication. At worst, the delay can mean the medical condition is no longer treatable. The second problem is that the improper drug could harm the patient.
• Not receiving the correct medication. Here, the pharmacy fills the prescription correctly but the pharmacy then fails to give the patient the prescription they ordered. For example, the patient may receive a medication that was prescribed for another patient.
• Prescribing or administering the wrong dosage. Pharmacies may give a patient the wrong dosage. The doctors, nurses, anesthesiologists, and other healthcare professionals who provide medications to their patients may not provide the correct dosage to the patient. Receiving the improper dosage can prevent the patient’s condition from being treated properly.
• Not explaining the proper way to administer the medication. Filling a prescription is just one part of delivering a drug to a patient. The doctor who prescribes medication, the pharmacist who provides instructions to the patient, and the medical providers who administer medications need to ensure that the medication is taken or administered correctly. Some medications can be chewed; many need to be taken whole. Some medications need to be taken orally; others may need to be injected, applied, or administered in other ways. If a medication is to be injected, the prescription should make clear where the drug should be injected.
• Labeling errors. The manufacturer and pharmacy need to ensure that their labels contain the correct information for who is to receive the medication – and when, how often, and how the medications should be taken.
• Failing to understand drug interactions. The doctors prescribing medications and the pharmacy that is filling a medication should check whether the patient has any allergies and what medical conditions the patient has that might make taking the prescribed medication cause dangerous reactions or side effects.
• Compliance errors. For example, drug manufacturers need to comply with FDA regulations.

Other prescription errors include prescribing the medication too early or too late or prescribing the wrong duration.