In August, an Alabama woman was awarded $2.5 million after a Rite Aid pharmacist gave her the wrong prescription, causing severe physical and psychiatric injuries.
Mrs. Reva Tosh, who suffers from rheumatoid arthritis, was given a prescription for pain. Unfortunately, a pharmacist gave her a drug that treats cancer – at seven times the customary dosage – for a full month. Mrs. Tosh developed Cushing’s Syndrome, an adrenal gland disorder, which caused mental disorders, physical injury, and eventually, confinement to a wheelchair.
According to the Kaiser Family Foundation, over 4 billion prescriptions were filled by retail pharmacies in 2015. Of those, how many prescriptions were filled incorrectly? While some sources report a whopping 22% of all prescriptions are filled incorrectly, that’s actually misleading due to various definitions used.
An “error rate” in filling a prescription could fall under dispensing the wrong quantity, failure to use a child safety cap, the wrong dosage, and of course, the wrong drug. We can leave the arguments over the error rate to the experts, but the fact is, thousands of pharmacy malpractice lawsuits are filed each year against pharmacies and their pharmacists.
While advancements have been made, including the use of electronic prescribing, pill imaging, bar coding, and sophisticated drug interaction software, mistakes are still being made – and at times, with disastrous consequences.
To be clear, the majority of prescriptions are filled correctly. However, as stated above, when a prescription is filled incorrectly, the results can be life-altering.
If you feel you have been injured as a result of pharmacy malpractice, please contact The Harris Firm, P.C. We will carefully analyze your claim and discuss the prospects of a malpractice lawsuit with you. You can reach us at (214)956-7474.
