Medication Errors Attorney
in South Carolina

Medication Errors Attorney and Prescription Error Lawyer Fights for Injured Patients

Pharmacy Lawyer – Skilled and tough representation throughout South Carolina

The benefits of prescription drugs depend on the performance of the staff who process them and deal with patients. Too often, pharmacies and hospitals make errors that do serious harm to patients. If this has happened to you, trust The Law Offices of David L. Hood, your medication errors attorney and co-counsel to manage your claim. If our investigation shows that an error was made, we are prepared to fight aggressively for the outcome you deserve!

Table of Contents

1. What are medication errors?
2. Types of medication errors
3. Causes of medication errors
4. Did your pharmacy give you the wrong medication?
5. Reporting medication errors
6. Legal consequences of medication errors
7. Do I need an attorney for my pharmacy malpractice case?
8. Contact a skilled medication errors lawyer in South Carolina

What are medication errors?

Medication errors happen when a mistake is made in prescribing, dispensing, or taking medicine. This could mean getting the wrong medicine, taking the wrong amount, or taking it at the wrong time. These errors can happen to anyone and can occur in places like hospitals, pharmacies, or even at home.

Many errors result from personal and institutional sloppiness. Understaffed pharmacies and hospitals put pressure on employees to handle too great a volume of work. Communication problems, from poor handwriting to dependence on outdated technology, also cause preventable errors.

Proving malpractice by a pharmacy or hospital is tough and takes the right kind of experts and lawyers. Your medication errors attorney, David Hood and his co-counsel legal team, have the knowhow, contacts and resolve to prosecute your case fully and achieve the results you deserve.

Types of medication errors

Hospitals

Medication errors in hospitals are more common than many people think, and they can happen at any stage of the medication process. From prescribing and documenting to dispensing and giving the medications, there’s always a risk of something going wrong. Understanding these errors is the first step toward preventing them.

Types of medication errors in hospitals

• Prescription Errors: Prescription errors are some of the most common mistakes in hospitals. These occur when a doctor prescribes the wrong medication or the wrong dosage. Sometimes, a doctor might not consider a patient’s allergies or other medications they are taking, which can lead to harmful interactions. Other times, the error might be due to unclear handwriting or a mix-up in drug names that sound alike.
• Dispensing Errors: Dispensing errors happen in the hospital pharmacy. A pharmacist might misread the prescription or pick the wrong medication from the shelf. Also, errors can occur when the medication is labeled incorrectly, leading to confusion later on when the medication is to be administered to the patient.
• Administration Errors: This type of error occurs when there is a mistake in how the medication is given to the patient. It could be the wrong dose, the wrong method (like an injection instead of a tablet) or given at the wrong time. Nurses and healthcare providers need to be very careful to check the patient’s information, the medication label, and follow the correct procedures.
• Patient Compliance Errors: Sometimes, the error doesn’t happen on the part of the hospital staff but instead occurs when patients do not follow their medication instructions correctly after leaving the hospital. This can include not taking the correct dosage or not taking medication at the right times.
• Documentation Errors: Documentation errors occur when the details of the medication are not recorded accurately in the patient’s medical records. This can lead to other types of errors, like giving a second (double) dose of medication because the first dose wasn’t recorded.

Pharmacies

When you go to a pharmacy, you expect to get the right medicine to help you feel better or manage a health condition. However, sometimes mistakes happen, even in pharmacies. These mistakes are called medication errors and understanding them can help us find ways to prevent them.

Types of medication errors in pharmacies

• Prescription Mistakes: A doctor might write down the wrong medicine or the wrong dose on the prescription form. If the pharmacist doesn’t catch this mistake, you might end up with the wrong medication or the wrong amount.
• Dispensing the Wrong Medication: This is when the pharmacist gives out the wrong drug. For example, if two medications have similar names or packaging, the pharmacist might accidentally pick the wrong one off the shelf. This can be very dangerous, especially if the medication given has a completely different purpose.
• Wrong dosage of medication: Dosage errors happen when the right medicine is given, but in the wrong amount. You might receive too much or too little of your medication. This can happen if the pharmacist misreads the prescription or if there is a mistake in how the medicine is measured or divided.
• Labeling Errors: Labeling errors occur when the information on the medicine bottle or package is incorrect. This might include wrong instructions about how many pills to take or how often to take them. Good labeling is crucial because it tells you how to use the medicine safely.
• Failure to Provide Advice: Pharmacists are also supposed to give advice on how to take medications safely and discuss any potential side effects. If a pharmacist is too busy or overlooks this duty, you might not get important information about how to use your medicine correctly, which can lead to problems.
• Allergic Reactions: If a pharmacist doesn’t check your medical history for allergies or if the information is not up to date, you might be given a medicine that can cause an allergic reaction. This can be serious and is a type of error related to not having complete patient information.

For any of these pharmacy or hospital errors, if we believe we can help you, medication errors attorney David Hood and his co-counsel legal team is ready to get to work on your case.

Causes of medication errors

Medication errors can happen at any stage of the healthcare process. Understanding why they occur can help prevent them. Factors that contribute to medication errors:

• Communication Issues: Communication is key. Errors can happen when doctors, nurses, and pharmacists misunderstand each other. For example, if a doctor’s handwriting is hard to read or if they use medical jargon that the patient or a nurse doesn’t understand. This can lead to mistakes in the type or dosage of medication given.
• Human Error: Healthcare professionals make mistakes. A nurse might be very tired and give a patient the wrong medication, or a pharmacist might misread a prescription and dispense the incorrect drug.
• Similar Medication Names: Some medications have names that sound alike or look similar in writing. This can cause confusion, leading to a patient receiving the wrong medication. “Hydroxyzine” (an antihistamine) and “hydralazine” (a medication for high blood pressure) sound similar but treat very different conditions.
• Complex Medical Instructions: If instructions are not clear or are misunderstood, it can lead to patients taking medications incorrectly. For instance, some medications need to be taken with food, or not combined with certain other medications. If these instructions are not followed, it can lead to problems.
• Lack of Patient Information: Doctors and pharmacists need complete health information to prescribe and dispense medications safely. If they do not have a patient’s full health history, including allergies and other medications they are taking, they might prescribe a drug that causes harmful interactions or allergic reactions.
• System Errors: Sometimes the systems used by hospitals, like electronic health records, can have issues that lead to medication errors. For example, if a system is outdated or not working properly, it might not update with the latest patient information or might mis-record a doctor’s prescription.

Did your pharmacy give you the wrong medication?

Steps you should take if you think your pharmacy gave you the wrong medication:

• Step 1: Double-Check Your Prescription

Compare the medication you received with the prescription your doctor gave you. Look at the medicine’s name, the dosage (how much you take and how often), and the number of pills. Everything should match what’s written on your prescription. If you can’t find your paper prescription, you might have a copy in your email, or you can call your doctor to confirm.

• Step 2: Look at the Label

Check the label on the bottle carefully. Sometimes, the names of medicines can sound similar but are actually different drugs. Also, make sure your name is on the bottle, and that the directions for taking the medication are clear and match what your doctor told you.

• Step 3: Don’t Take Any Medicine If You’re Unsure

If something seems off don’t take the medication. Taking the wrong medicine could make you really sick.

• Step 4: Call the Pharmacy

If something seems wrong, call your pharmacy. Explain your concerns clearly: tell them what you received, what your prescription says, and why you think there’s a mistake. Pharmacies have systems in place to handle these situations. They can check their records for an error.

• Step 5: Visit the Pharmacy If Needed

If the issue isn’t cleared up by phone, you might need to go back to the pharmacy. Bring your medication and any proof of your prescription (like the doctor’s original prescription or a digital copy). This will help the pharmacist understand the mistake and fix it quickly.

• Step 6: Report Serious Errors

If the mistake is serious, or if you had any health problems because of the wrong medication, you might need to report it.

• Step 7: Contact medication errors attorney David L. Hood and his co-counsel legal team today!

The Law Offices of David L. Hood works hard to make sure healthcare providers are held responsible. We carefully examine your case, talk to medical experts, and gather the evidence you need to get full compensation. Proving pharmacy malpractice can be complicated and tough, but let us, your medication errors attorney and co-counsel use our experience, skills, and resources to help you today!

Reporting medication errors

You may want to report medication errors to:

– Help prevent the same mistakes from happening to others.

– Provide valuable feedback to healthcare providers to improve safety.

You could potentially tell your doctor, who could report it to medical safety groups, or you might report it directly to groups like the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) that keep track of medication errors.

Once again, you can report medication errors to your doctor, pharmacy, or directly to the FDA through their MedWatch program, just don’t expect results, unless a lawsuit is filed.

Legal consequences of medication errors

Pharmacy malpractice is a serious problem across America, injuring more than 1.3 million people and killing almost 100,000 annually. Hospitals report that about three percent of admissions are due to problems with medication. In addition, another three percent of hospital patients suffer injuries from medication mistakes while hospitalized. This causes them to extend their stay by an average of eight to 12 days. Estimates put the cost of medication errors at over $29 billion per year and as high as $72 billion.

To show pharmacy malpractice, an injured patient should have evidence of a mistake in filling the script. Also, providing inadequate warning to the patient about side effects may be malpractice. In other settings, it can occur when staff, like a nurse, makes a careless mistake in giving a drug.

Do I need an attorney for my pharmacy malpractice case?

Medication errors can have serious legal consequences for healthcare providers. They might face:

– lawsuits for medical malpractice

– fines

– other penalties, especially if the error caused significant harm

If you or a loved one has been injured by a medication error, call The Law Offices of David L. Hood now for your free initial consultation! If we believe we can help, medication errors attorney David Hood and co-counsel have what it takes to handle the complex task of taking on pharmacies and hospitals. 

Contact a Skilled Medication Errors Lawyer in South Carolina for your Pharmacy Malpractice Claim

The Law Offices of David L. Hood provides highly responsive staff and counsel who are determined to hold healthcare providers responsible. To schedule a free consult, contact any of our 18 statewide locations. We can be reached by phone, email, text or chat, 24/7. To schedule a free consultation, call us at 843-491-6025 or contact us online. If your injuries prevent you from coming to our office, we can come to you. Let’s start putting the evidence together now!