What’s the use of a doctor if he hands you a prescription for disease?
Okay, so that’s a bit dramatic. But for patients across the country, prescription errors turn that annoyance into a living nightmare.
Prescription mistakes are one of the leading forms of medical negligence in the U.S. They occur across care settings — hospitals, pharmacies, doctors’ offices. They’re also preventable. But when they’re not, they can cause lasting damage to patient health.
If you were misdiagnosed due to a healthcare provider’s failure to prescribe the proper medication — or prescribed the wrong medication and suffered life-altering harm as a result — speaking to an attorney who specializes in failure to diagnose is the best first step. Partnering with an experienced Orange County medical malpractice lawyer can help you figure out if medical negligence was at play and what legal options you may have.
Here’s What You’ll Cover:
- What Are Prescription Errors?
- Common Types of Prescription Errors
- How Prescription Errors Impact Patient Health
- Who Is at Fault for Prescription Errors?
- Steps to Take After a Prescription Error Occurs
What Are Prescription Errors?
Essentially, a prescription error occurs anytime a patient is given the wrong prescription medication — or no medication at all — due to someone’s mistake.
Simple enough, right? Well, as is often the case with medical negligence, the devil is in the details.
Prescription errors can occur at different stages of the prescribing process:
- When doctors write and give prescriptions
- When pharmacists fill prescriptions
- When hospital staff administer prescriptions
- When patients fill and consume prescriptions themselves
Every year, 1.3 million Americans suffer injury from medication errors, according to the World Health Organization.
Yep, you read that right.
1.3 MILLION injured by prescriptive mistakes.
That’s not an error. That’s a full-blown epidemic.
Common Types of Prescription Errors
Prescription errors don’t all stem from the same place. In fact, there are several different types of prescription errors that can occur during each step of the process.
- The wrong medication: The most common error of all. This happens when a doctor prescribes a completely wrong medication. Usually this is due to similarly-named drugs or poor handwriting.
- The wrong dosage: This can be equally as dangerous as prescribing the wrong medication. This happens when the dose is too high or too low for the patient.
- Dangerous interactions: When a patient is already taking one medication and prescribed another that negatively interacts with it.
- Patient allergies: When a healthcare provider prescribes a medication that the patient is allergic to. Typically occurs when medical records aren’t properly vetted.
- The wrong patient: When two patients’ prescriptions get mixed up in hospital settings.
And here’s the scary part…
91% of prescription errors are prescribing errors, per a 2023 study published in the International Journal of Clinical Pharmacy.
Yup. Most prescription errors start with the doctor not knowing what they’re doing.
How Prescription Errors Impact Patient Health
Prescription errors can have lasting consequences that impact patient health long after they leave the doctor’s office or hospital room.
And the longer it takes to discover the error, the more catastrophic it can be.
Patients who suffer prescription injuries can experience severe adverse reactions that land them back in the emergency room. Some patients are left untreated while the incorrect medicine tries to treat their illness. Others never recover from the damage inflicted by their prescription error.
Regardless of what happens immediately after the mistake is made, here are some common health conditions that arise due to prescription malpractice:
- Organ damage from incorrect or overdose prescriptions
- Disease progression from incorrect medication
- Severe allergic reactions requiring immediate medical attention
- Addiction or dependence from unauthorized controlled substances
- Permanent neurological damage from contraindicated drugs
Every year, between 7,000 and 9,000 Americans die due to medication errors. But that is only the ones we know about.
Depending on the error, patients who suffer because of prescription mistakes can experience serious physical damage that they’ll have to live with for the rest of their lives.
They’ll also have to deal with financial repercussions from medical bills and extended recovery time. Many families experience severe mental anguish after a prescription error, as well.
The damage is far-reaching.
Who Is Legally Responsible for Prescription Errors?
This is where things start to get interesting. Medication errors can be the responsibility of many people, depending on where the mistake occurred.
- Doctors: A doctor’s job is to evaluate the patient’s needs and write a prescription based on their medical history.
- Pharmacists: Pharmacists are responsible for filling out prescriptions accurately and noticing any possible drug interactions or dosage issues.
- Nurses and hospital staff: Nurses and anyone else involved in passing out medicine in a hospital are liable if they give the wrong patient the medication or administer an incorrect dosage.
- Hospitals/healthcare providers: In many cases, hospitals can be responsible for prescription errors due to inadequate training or staff and internal issues.
The key question is always whether or not the accepted standard of care was provided to the patient.
A failure to diagnose attorney will be able to identify this. By reviewing medical records and speaking to medical experts, an attorney will make a determination on whether there is a case against the provider.
It’s worth noting that 1 in 5 Americans experience some type of medication error while under the care of a healthcare professional. Sadly, most people don’t even realize they’ve been the victim of medical malpractice.
Steps to Take After a Prescription Error Occurs
Figuring out you (or your loved one) were given the wrong prescription is upsetting. But knowing what to do next can feel daunting.
If you believe you were a victim of a prescription error, here are the steps you should take:
- Get medical attention (if you haven’t already)
- Document everything
- Request medical records
- Limit communication with your provider
- Contact a medical malpractice attorney ASAP
While it’s true that prescription errors can be reported to the FDA, the primary concern should be wellbeing. Make sure to get the proper care needed, and take notes of every interaction related to the error.
Prescription bottles, receipts, and discharge papers will all be helpful if you decide to take legal action.
A full copy of all medical records related to the incident should also be requested. Patients are legally entitled to their medical records and can request them from their provider.
As far as discussing the error with your doctor goes, it’s best to not say too much. Any statement made can be used against you in your case.
Finally, seek legal counsel from a knowledgeable medical malpractice attorney.
There are time limits for how long you have to file a lawsuit against your provider. These time frames vary from state-to-state, but the best bet is to not wait.
The sooner an attorney is contacted, the sooner they can review the case and start building a claim.
Prescription Errors Can Change Your Life. Know Your Rights.
Prescription errors are wildly common. More common than you’d ever think. But that doesn’t mean they should be taken lightly.
Too many patients suffer needlessly due to medication errors that could have been easily prevented.
But only if someone who knew what they were doing was looking out for them.
If you were the victim of a prescription error, let an attorney who knows medical malpractice look out for you.
You deserve to be compensated for the damage done to your health. And you shouldn’t have to go through the legal process alone.
