Prescriptions are a routine part of health care. According to research presented by the CDC, roughly 76 percent of visits to the doctor’s office involve some kind of drug therapy. Prescription drugs are also a key part of treatments in other medical settings.
People depend on prescription drugs to survive, heal from, or cope with various medical problems. However, from the time a prescription is written to the moment a patient takes the drug, there’s room for serious and preventable errors.
For people in St. Paul and throughout Minnesota, attorneys experienced with Minnesota medical negligence law are skilled at tackling pharmacy malpractice and dealing with the complexity of different cases.
Possible Types of Pharmacy Malpractice  Â
Whether the pharmacy is situated in a hospital, a clinic, an assisted living facility, or a drugstore, preventable problems can take a number of forms.
- The pharmacy dispenses the wrong medication.
- The medication is provided at an incorrect dose.
- The instructions for taking the medication safely are inaccurate or unclear.
- There’s a failure to check for and clearly provide necessary information about the drug, such as potential side effects, allergies, and harmful interactions with other medications, food, or drink.
- The pharmacy introduces contamination to the drug.
Along with investigating what occurred at the pharmacy, it may also be necessary to look into the actions of other professionals. Prescription drug errors may stem from negligent behavior on the part of doctors, nurses, or other health care providers.
Other times, the source of the problem may be the pharmaceutical companies. For example, one of the main causes of FDA drug recalls is the mislabeling of packages by the drug manufacturer.
Your attorney will help you figure out who’s responsible for the harm to your health. Whether it’s one pharmacy or a combination of individuals and businesses, you need to know.
Pharmacy Malpractice Evidence: What Are Some Examples?
If you’ve suffered harm from possible malpractice, what are some pieces of evidence that may support your case?
Problems With Labeling
Minnesota has an extensive list of rules governing pharmacy operations in different settings. Among them are requirements for proper labeling when drugs are dispensed to patients. Potential problems on medication labels include:
- Incorrect or unclear identifying information for a patient.
- Incomplete, unclear, or inaccurate information about the drug, including its name and dose.
- Inadequate instructions for taking the drug safely.
Issues With Packaging
The container for a drug needs to meet certain standards for quality and safety. For example, it must protect against moisture and various contaminants. It should also safeguard against tampering and any attempts made by a child to open it.
When the pharmacy you relied on failed to follow necessary packaging guidelines, it’s possible evidence for a malpractice case.
Errors in the Prescription
- Did a doctor or another health care provider write the prescription incorrectly? The possibilities including mixing up drug names or adding another digit to the dose.
- Did the pharmacy interpret or transcribe the prescription incorrectly?
- Faced with what appeared to be an inappropriate dose or another apparent problem, did the pharmacist fail to check up on the prescription information or issue the necessary warnings?
Both the doctor and pharmacist may have been behaving negligently. It’s also possible that the responsibility fell on one and not the other.
Unprofessional Practices
The pharmacy may have been engaging in practices that don’t meet professional standards or regulations. These include:
- Poor organization and oversight.
- Failure to store medications safely and appropriately.
- Faults in the record system.
- A lack of appropriate safety checks for ensuring that patients receive the right medication at safe amounts.
- Employees who don’t have the appropriate qualifications.
How Did Malpractice Affect You?
When you discuss the unique circumstances of your case with an attorney, you’ll develop a clearer picture of what happened. You’ll also be able to determine the amount of compensation that would be fair given the harm that you or your loved ones have suffered.
- Medication errors are one of the contributing factors for adverse drug events (ADEs). ADEs lead to hundreds of thousands of emergency room visits and hospitalizations every year.
- After taking the wrong drug or a harmful combination of drugs, patients may die or suffer serious damage to their health. Even in cases when the wrong medication doesn’t have a direct negative impact, the patient’s medical condition is left untreated and could worsen.
- In situations where patients are given the correct prescription drug, they may suffer a fatal or otherwise harmful overdose due to a pharmacy error. One example is when a pharmacy dispenses adult-strength pills to a child.
- Patients may also receive an insufficient dose, leaving their medical problems untreated or poorly managed.
- When they’re given false or unclear information about how to take the drug safely, patients experience an increased risk of adverse consequences to their health.
In non-fatal cases of medication errors, patients may suffer paralysis or other forms of limited mobility, a coma, internal bleeding, organ damage or malfunctioning, and severe pain.
What Are the Potential Costs?
- Medical expenses from pharmacy errors may be extensive. They could include the costs incurred by emergency room visits, hospitalization, additional medications, outpatient visits, and any other forms of necessary care. For example, people who suffer a disability or a chronic condition may need lifelong care and certain assistive technologies, including wheelchairs.
- Depending on the effects of the malpractice, you may need compensation for missed work, job loss, or an inability to hold down a job.
- If your loved one has died from a pharmacy error, you should be able to find support during your bereavement and in coping with wrongful death.
- Pharmacy errors may also impair quality of life in various ways, affecting your ability to sustain relationships, attend school, and participate in certain activities. In some cases, you may need to make changes to your home or vehicle to accommodate disability or other effects on your health.
Minnesota Attorneys Can Help YouÂ
You shouldn’t have to cope alone with the effects of medical negligence. Guidance and support from your attorney will help in a number of important ways, including the following:
- Working with their thorough understanding of Minnesota law, your attorney can help you determine if your case involved negligence or malpractice on the part of a pharmacy (and possibly other medical facilities or professionals).
- With your attorney’s help, you’ll clear up the complexities of your case, correctly fill out and file the appropriate paperwork by various deadlines, and organize all the key evidence, including prescription scripts and medication labels.
- Your attorney’s experience in this area will prove beneficial as you make important decisions about your case, including whether or not to go to trial.
- Your attorney’s powerful, compassionate, and highly skilled advocacy will increase your chances of receiving fair compensation.
When you contact us, you can expect a free consultation. It can take place at your home or at the hospital. Whether you call or send an email, you can look forward to a quick response.