Depending on your doctor’s diagnosis, part of your treatment may include one or more prescriptions. After leaving your doctor’s office, you go to one of Atlanta’s many pharmacies to obtain the medications you need in order to resolve your condition.
Many people consider the fact that a doctor may make an error when it comes to a diagnosis, but you may not realize that pharmacists can make dangerous mistakes as well. When you think about it logically, it makes perfect sense since they are human, but that only adds to the trepidation you now feel about whether you received the prescription your doctor intended.
What kinds of mistakes do pharmacists make?
The most commonly made pharmacy mistakes are also largely preventable. They include the following:
- You may receive the right medication, but the dosage may be wrong.
- You may receive the wrong medication altogether.
- The pharmacist may neglect to let you know about dangerous side effects of a particular medication.
- The pharmacist may fail to see potentially dangerous drug interactions or other complications with your prescriptions.
- The pharmacist may market unsafe or defective medications.
Any of these errors could result in serious harm to you. You could end up permanently injured.
What circumstances contribute to these mistakes?
The following circumstances create an atmosphere in which a pharmacist could make a crucial error:
- Technology has made significant improvements in all aspects of the medical industry, including pharmacology. However, relying too much on the available technologies leads to mistakes since the information in the system is only as good as the person who entered it.
- During a normal 12-hour shift, your pharmacist may fill anywhere from 300 to 450 prescriptions. That’s a lot of potential for error, especially when customers are waiting and become impatient.
- Both pharmacists and doctors remain busy during their workdays. Taking the time to properly communicate regarding questionable prescriptions doesn’t always happen as it should.
- Because pharmacies remain so busy, training may be insufficient.
- Pharmacists rely on pharmacy technicians to perform numerous tasks such as labeling bottles, measuring out prescriptions and dispensing them to customers. Too much reliance and not enough quality checking could easily result in errors.
Any of these errors could put your health, and perhaps your life, in danger. If you suffer harm that you believe your pharmacist caused, you have rights and legal options. You may be able to pursue compensation for the damage the mistake caused and help prevent such errors from harming others in the future.
