Pharmacy Errors and Medical Malpractice in Michigan

We trust pharmacies, hospital staff, and medical providers to carefully and correctly deliver medications. Unfortunately, medication errors happen more often than most patients realize. In the U.S., medication errors injure more than 1.5 million patients per year and are the eighth leading cause of death, accounting for 7,000 to 9,000 fatalities annually.

Doctors, pharmacists, and pharmacy technicians can make mistakes dispensing, administering, or monitoring medications. This type of negligence can lead to a medical malpractice lawsuit. However, not all adverse outcomes are malpractice.

For example, imagine a patient has an adverse reaction after taking a new medication. If a previously unknown allergy caused their response, it is unlikely to be considered malpractice. However, if their allergy was noted in their records, the dispensing pharmacist may be negligent. Learning more about common pharmacy and hospital medication errors can help explain how pharmacy errors might constitute malpractice.

Common Types of Pharmacy Dispensing Errors

Many patients fill prescriptions at outpatient or retail pharmacy settings, such as drug stores or pharmacy departments in grocery stores and big-box stores. In these locations, common errors include:

• “Look-Alike, Sound-Alike” confusion. Drugs with similar names (such as Celexa vs. Celebrex, or Clonidine vs. Klonopin) may be misread or mis-entered in a computer system. Handwritten prescriptions increase the risk of mistaking similarly named drugs. Pharmacists must take appropriate steps to verify the accuracy of a prescription if there is any uncertainty.
• Incorrect dosage or strength. Pharmacists may fill a prescription incorrectly if a decimal point is overlooked or misplaced. This can result in a dangerous overdose or underdose. For example, a “1.0 mg” prescription may get filled as 10 mg. 
• Wrong or incomplete instructions. The directions may omit or incorrectly direct how and when the patient should take the drug. For example, “take twice daily” might be mistakenly written as “take daily,” or a patient may ingest a drug if the instructions don’t clearly indicate they should rub it on their skin. These types of miscommunications can have serious consequences.
• Overlooking drug interactions or allergies. Pharmacists are expected to cross-check a patient’s existing prescriptions and allergy history. Failing to catch a dangerous interaction or an allergy is a serious error. They should also alert patients to avoid other things that are likely to interact with their medication, such as over-the-counter drugs, alcohol, or foods.
• Labeling mix-ups. Rarely, a patient may pick up their prescription and get someone else’s medication because of swapped bottles or mislabeling. Pharmacists and pharmacy technicians must take proper precautions to prevent these potentially deadly mistakes.
• Failure to counsel or warn. Pharmacists have a legal duty to counsel patients on taking their medication correctly and inform them about the side effects and signs of potential problems. This interaction is often minimized or skipped when pharmacists and patients are in a hurry, but it can be crucial to ensuring patient safety.

Pharmacy mistakes can be caused by overly heavy workloads, workflow interruptions, staff shortages, fatigue, inattention, and inadequate safety protocols. Pharmacists, pharmacy technicians, and pharmacy owners may share responsibility for errors that occur.

Medication Errors in Hospitals and Clinical Settings

In hospitals, medical errors related to medications are a well-documented risk. Compiled medical data indicate that one in every ten hospitalized patients experiences a medication error, although many of these mistakes don’t lead to serious injury. 

Common hospital or inpatient clinical medication errors include:

• Ordering or prescribing errors. The physician orders the wrong drug, dose, frequency, or method of administration. Illegible or ambiguous orders increase this risk. Rigidly hierarchical hospital cultures that discourage subordinates from questioning orders can allow these types of mistakes to go disastrously unchecked.
• Transcription or handoff mistakes. Orders must be accurately relayed from the physician to the pharmacy and back to the nursing staff. They must also be noted correctly in the patient’s chart so that each shift has a complete record of the patient’s treatment.
• Administration errors. Nurses or other staff may administer the wrong dosage, administer medication at the wrong time, or use the incorrect method (e.g., intravenous vs. oral).
• Inadequate monitoring or missed safety checks. After giving each dose of medication, staff must monitor for adverse effects and lab abnormalities. In many cases, responding quickly is essential to prevent adverse reactions from causing permanent harm.
• Failure of safeguard protocols. Hospitals typically employ “double-checking” systems to reduce errors, such as electronic prescribing, bar-code medication administration, and computerized order entry. Overriding these systems or ignoring protocol increases the chances for error.

Because hospitals are complex systems, multiple parties may share liability for medication errors. Potentially liable parties include the ordering physician, pharmacy department, nursing staff, and hospital administration.

When Does a Pharmacy Error Become Medical Malpractice?

A bad outcome alone doesn’t always prove malpractice. For an error to qualify as medical malpractice, a plaintiff must prove several legal elements.

• Duty of care. The pharmacy, pharmacist, hospital, or provider had a legal duty to act with reasonable care in providing them medical treatment. 
• Breach of duty. The provider failed to meet the applicable standard of care.
• Causation. The provider’s breach of their duty directly caused or substantially contributed to the plaintiff’s injury.
• Damages. You suffered a real injury, such as additional medical treatment, hospitalization, disability, costs, pain and suffering, etc.

In Michigan, pharmacy malpractice is a recognized subset of medical negligence. Errors in prescribing, administering, or monitoring medication may also be malpractice if they violate a provider’s expected standard of care and cause harm.

Contact an Experienced Michigan Medical Malpractice Lawyer

If you believe a pharmacy or hospital error injured you or caused the death of a loved one, contact an experienced Michigan medical malpractice attorney. Michigan law has numerous additional requirements for medical malpractice claims. Because of these complexities, it’s crucial to act promptly, preserve evidence, and consult an experienced malpractice attorney as soon as possible. Contact the team at Sommers Schwartz, P.C. to schedule a free, no-obligation, confidential consultation today.