New Jersey Injury Lawyer & Attorney : Law Offices of Scott D. Grossman : Serving Monmouth County, Bergen County

You have read on this blog my ongoing reporting and analysis of the epidemic of pharmacy errors and the threat to the public that it poses. Well here is a variation on the theme.  Today it was announced on NJ.com, that retail pharmacy chain Rite Aid settled a lawsuit with New Jersey for $475,000 for selling expired over-the-counter medications along with expired infant formulas and baby food. According to the article, 42 Rite Aid stores were found selling expired items throughout New Jersey. If the chain, which also includes Eckerd stores, fails to comply with the terms of the settlement over the next year, it faces an additional $175,000 in penalties.

 Once again, I implore the public to be extra vigilant when shopping at these pharmacies. It is bad enough that we are forced to defend ourselves against prescription errors at the hands of pharmacists and their technicians; now simply going to the shelves for Tylenol or a can of Similac has become a potential health threat to us as well.

• Print
• Comments
• Trackbacks

As a pharmacy error attorney, I have witnessed first hand many cases where children and adults are given the wrong medication due to medications have similar names and sizes so they are easily confused by pharmacy staff. In addition, children taken to adult hospitals suffer injuries or fatalities because these hospitals carry mostly adult size doses of medication so when a child is treated, their medication is often confused with the appropriate adult size.

According to an article from the American Medical News, a shocking 11% of child patients have adverse drug events during hospital stays. Most of the results came from children staying in adult hospitals and given adult sized doses instead of the pediatric size. Dr. Sharek, chief clinical patient safety officer at Lucile Packard Children's Hospital in Palo Alto, Calif. said “We are so used to writing pediatric, weight-based doses and when children are being cared for at adult hospitals staffed by adult-based nurses and adult-based pharmacists, that's a type of error that could theoretically occur a lot more frequently." The American Medical News goes on to say “The Joint Commission, which accredits and certifies more than 15,000 U.S. health care organizations and programs, said in its sentinel event alert that children are at greater risk for adverse drug events. That's because most medications are formulated and packaged for adults, and most hospitals and emergency departments are geared toward caring for adults.” The Joint Commission is further investigating these problems and suggests that hospitals identify and administer pediatric medications. Frank Federico, RPh, said "Medication should be delivered to the nursing unit or available in ready-to-administer fashion. That way, there is less that nurses have to do and less chance for error.”

• Print
• Comments
• Trackbacks

A large chain pharmacy commits another mistake by mislabeling a three month old's prescription with the wrong dosage.  I used the word mistake here because it is a well known way to describe pharmacy errors but the truth is that the words "pharmacy mistake" sound way too innocuous for these situations. 

This time, in a  recent article on FoxNews.com, the victim was a baby with a sinus infection. The parents filled a doctor's prescription for Histacol DM syrup at a Palm Coast, Florida Walgreen's store. The dosage of the medication was to be a quarter of a milliliter. The prescription was erroneously filled by a Walgreen's pharmacy, who wrote the  dosage at a quarter teaspoon, six times the prescribed amount of medication.  Upon taking the first dosage, the baby became unresponsive and was rushed to the hospital, where doctors were able to stabilize the child. In a typical move,  Walgreen's offered $2,000 to make this bad story disappear, which the family refused.

• Print
• Comments
• Trackbacks

The medical journal Pediatrics has released a study that shows that hospitalized children are at a high risk of being overdosed, given the wrong medication or have an adverse reaction. In fact, the study revealed that one out of every 15 hospitalized children has fallen victim to medication errors. It is a heartbreaking, terribly frightening new study. Read FoxNews.com's article about the study.

• Print
• Comments
• Trackbacks

There was an article on USAToday.com which excerpted an interview with a young pharmacist (who incidentally is now enrolled in law school), about pharmacy errors. It was a pretty interesting article, as it gave another view as to who is ultimately responsible for prescriptions that are filled and dispensed to the drug-consuming public. The pharmacist, Eli Phillips, Jr., a second generation pharmacist (his dad is a pharmacist too), was quoted as saying "Ultimately, the pharmacist is responsible for every prescription that leaves, whether it is correct or incorrect. It's all on the pharmacist. The technicians are there only as a means of support."

• Print
• Comments
• Trackbacks

I found this article on courant.com about a report recently released by standard-setting organization for the pharmaceutical and dietary supplement industry, U.S. Pharmacopeiahas, or USP, which found that there are at least 3000 pairs of drugs with similar names, which is contributing to the high incidence of pharmacy dispensing mistakes. Here are a few examples:

-Zestril (high blood pressure) and  Zetia (cholesterol)

-Lamactil (epilepsy) and Lamisil (fungal infections)

-Celebrex (arthritis) and Celexa (antidepressant)

-Zantac (reflux) and Xanax (anxiety)

Scary, right? The article offers some helpful tips to protect yourself from a mix-up with potentially deadly consequences:

-Don't have your prescription telephoned in

-Make sure the script is printed in English (as opposed to Latin code or illegible scribble)

-Keep a copy of your prescription

-Double check the pills and the label BEFORE you leave the pharmacy

• Print
• Comments
• Trackbacks

A recent article on Science Daily.com reported on a study which revealed that  pharmacists who work at pharmacies with drive-thru service windows feel that the drive-thru causes distractions that may lead to delays and dispensing errors. 

• Print
• Comments
• Trackbacks

I’m sure everyone is aware of the horror that actor Dennis Quaid and his wife Kimberly Buffington have suffered through in recent months. The couple welcomed twins in late November who were accidentally given 10,000 units of heparin instead of the usual 10 units of heparin while in the hospital (Cedar-Sinai Medical Center, Los Angeles). The babies, thankfully are recovering, but the Quaids have filed a lawsuit against the maker of the drug. The lawsuit centers around Baxter Healthcare Corporation’s failure to clearly label its 10 unit and 10,000 unit vials of heparin and failing to recall the product after three other babies died due to such a mistake. Apparently, both the small and large doses of the drug have similarly colored labels.

• Print
• Comments
• Trackbacks

KLTV-7 out of Tyler-Longview, Texas reported today that a Walgreen pharmacy filled a prescription for the antibiotic Augmentin four times the prescribed dosage for a five-month old baby. When the baby's mother gave her daughter the first dosage, the baby was vomiting and was lethargic. The label on the prescription said that the baby was to get two teaspoons twice a day of the antibiotic. The baby's doctor prescribed 1/2 teaspoon twice a day. When the pharmacist was confronted with the error, his response was that they were really busy the night the prescription was filled and "accidents happen." Unbelievable. While the baby will be okay, it's yet another lesson to the prescription consuming public how vigilant we all must be when it comes to our health.

• Print
• Comments (5)
• Trackbacks

A report out of Columbus, Georgia late last week revealed that a woman went to her local CVS Pharmacy to fill a Vicadin prescription for her son who sprained his ankle. The prescription was for twenty pills, but the pharmacist put 90 pills in the bottle. Horrified, and afraid of what could happen if someone got his hands on these excess pills, she called the pharmacy to report it. At that time she was told to either bring them back or throw them out, and when she told the pharmacist that she might not be able to get back to the store that night, she was told to, “Do what you want with them. Keep them. It doesn’t matter.” This did not sit well with the worried mother who then contacted the Georgia Narcotics Agency, who advised that she return the excess pills to the CVS, and when she went to do just that, the pharmacist refused to take them back. What an incredulous error in light of the fact pain killer prescriptions are to be checked by three different pharmacy staffers, including the pharmacist.

• Print
• Comments
• Trackbacks

When I read this story, I was horrified by what happened to a newly pregnant St. Louis woman who went to Walgreens to fill a prescription for prenatal vitamins and was instead given a potent chemotherapy drug that killed her unborn child. The woman and her husband filed a lawsuit seeking some form of justice against the powerful pharmacy chain, alleging that Walgreens failed to properly supervise pharmacy personnel who dispensed the medicine, failed to verify the prescription with her physician, and failed to follow appropriate protocol.

The couple alleges in their complaint that she began to feel ill and began vomiting about a month into her pregnancy and assumed it was morning sickness, all the while taking what she thought were the prenatal vitamins.  About a month later, she miscarried her baby. It is alleged that her unborn child was killed due to the ingesting of the potent chemotherapy drug.  After her miscarriage, she continued to take the chemotherapy drugs (still thinking they were prenatal vitamins) because she believed that the vitamins would prepare her for a subsequent pregnancy. It wasn't until she telephoned Walgreens for a refill that the pharmacist realized the mistake.  Please read the full article.  I implore you to write in about your own personal stories pertaining to pharmacy mistakes and errors and your opinions about what has happened to this couple.

• Print
• Comments
• Trackbacks

Late last week, a friend of mine called the office to tell me about a co-worker who fell victim to the ever-increasing incidence of pharmacy error. The co-worker, let’s call her “Janet,” hadn’t been feeling well and visited her physician, who diagnosed a common infection and prescribed a course of antibiotics. Janet filled the prescription at her local chain pharmacy located in Western Monmouth County. Within a day or two after starting the medication, Janet was feeling increasingly sicker, and at one point, thought she was having a stroke, as one side of her body lost all sensation. Janet’s husband rushed her to the emergency room; at first, the ER doctors thought she was suffering from a rare allergic reaction to the antibiotic, but soon learned that the pharmacy filled the prescription with the incorrect dosage, double the dosage originally prescribed by the doctor!

• Print
• Comments (4)
• Trackbacks

HealthDay News cited a recent study in that found that many of the harmful errors in chemotherapy for pediatric cancer patients are caused by dispensing or administration mistakes rather than by prescribing errors. According to the study, 85 percent of the drug errors were not detected until the child received the medication, and about 16 percent required an escalation of care as a result of the errors.

• Print
• Comments
• Trackbacks

A Portland, Oregon pharmacy erroneously made a drug 10 times more potent than intended, killing three people who received it at an Oregon clinic in April 2007. A recent article in the  Northwest Florida Daily News  reported that ApotheCure Inc., a drug compounding pharmacy company in Texas, admitted that an employee made a weighing error in the creation of the drug colchicine. The improperly weighed drug was then sent to the Center for Integrative Medicine in Portland, where three people received injections of the defective batch to treat back pain and subsequently died between the end of March and beginning of April from toxic levels of the drug. The Food and Drug Administration is investigating this matter.

• Print
• Comments
• Trackbacks

A recent post on The Blotter, an ABC News Blog, reported yet another incident of pharmacy negligence in the wake of the report on "20/20" last month. This time, a seven year old  Modesto, California boy was given an adult high blood pressure medication by a Walgreen's pharmacy, instead of the medication he needed for a mental health condition. The boy ended up in the hospital and the boy's mother was urged to report the incident. Not knowing where to turn, she called ABC News. The drug the boy was given, Toprol XL, is usually administered to adults with high blood pressure. The drug the boy was supposed to take was Tegretol-XR.  Both drugs sound very similar and are apparently often confused, to the point that in 2005, the FDA issued a warning about the potential for confusing these two medications. In the case of the seven year old, Walgreen's released a statement to ABC News, whereby it shifted some of the blame to the boy's doctor for hand writing the prescription which was ultimately misread by the pharmacy.

• Print
• Comments
• Trackbacks

Citizens of New Jersey, would it shock you to learn that in response to concerns about a dangerous increase in pharmacy-related prescription errors, your state legislature has introduced a bill, which if enacted into law, would preclude all forms of recourse should your pharmacist’s mistake cause you or your loved ones to suffer serious physical injuries.Well it’s hard to believe, but amazingly true: pharmacists would receive total immunity from civil liability for any errors committed resulting in serious harm as long as the error was reported to the New Jersey Board of Pharmacy. Even more astonishing is the likely effect the legislation will have on the large national and regional pharmacy chains- complete insulation from liability for the negligent acts of their pharmacist employees.

• Print
• Comments
• Trackbacks

Tonight's 20/20 program (see "Tragic Mistakes") sheds light on what can only be called a silent epidemic of the occurrence of pharmacy errors across the nation. The segment featured the tragic story of a young mother who gave her four-month old daughter who was born prematurely what she thought was an anti-seizure medication. What she actually gave the infant was an adult dose of a diabetes medication, which left her daughter permanently disabled, unable to talk, walk or feed herself. Walgreen's, the national pharmacy chain, was responsible for the dispensing error, this act of negligence that caused irreparable harm.

• Print
• Comments
• Trackbacks

Late last year, a jury delivered a verdict ordering Eckerd Corporation to pay Ms. Tiffany Phillips $7.7 million for a pharmacy error which resulted in the loss of the young woman's new kidney. CVS, also a named defendant in the action, reached a confidential settlement with Phillips for an undisclosed amount.

• Print
• Comments
• Trackbacks

Let's say you go to your internist this past winter complaining of a sinus infection. Your trusted doctor prescribes you a brand new antibiotic, not the usual one you've tolerated well and taken in the past. Why did he prescribe this new drug as opposed to the old standby? Is it because your doctor believes this new drug is the state of the art in fighting sinus infections... or is something else motivating him?

The pharmaceutical industry's influence on doctors' prescribing practices looms largely in the background in today's medical practice. It's more than lunches or free pens from the perky sales rep dispensing free samples with the office manager. Way more.

• Print
• Comments
• Trackbacks

Pharmacy errors can occur when a pharmacist i) dispenses the incorrect medication, ii) dispenses the incorrect dosage of the correct medication, iii) dispenses the correct medication with incorrect instructions, or iv) when the pharmacist fails to take into account known drug allergies or dangerous drug interactions with other medications being taken by a patient.

Serious injuries and even death can result from the negligence of pharmacists. People who have fallen victim to pharmacy negligence may become unable to work, may require long term care, may become disabled, and may experience a serious decline in quality of life. Should you or someone you love experience a serious personal injury resulting from the negligence of your pharmacy, contact The Law Offices of Scott D. Grossman, LLC for a free and confidential consultation at (732) 625-9494 or toll free (888) 899-9494.

• Print
• Comments
• Trackbacks

A sad but unfortunately all too increasingly common story of how devastating pharmacists' errors can be. Please read this article and empower yourself when you need a prescription filled.

Read the entire article on consumeraffairs.com.

• Print
• Comments
• Trackbacks

New research conducted by the University of California, San Diego concluded that in the first few days of every month, the incidence of fatalities due to pharmacy negligence rises by as much as 25 percent. The study was published in Pharmacotherapy, the journal of the American College of Clinical Pharmacy.

Read a synopsis of the study on ScienceBlog.com. 

• Print
• Comments
• Trackbacks