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

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. 

The pharmacists' beliefs about the impact drive-thrus have on the quality of delivery of service was studied by a professor or pharmacy practice and administration at Ohio State University.  The pharmacists were asked to complete a  detailed questionnaire which sought their opinions about how their work-flow was impacted by such things as the pharmacies' physcial layout, whether there was a drive-thru on site and whether there was an automated dispensing system. Overwhelmingly, the pharmacists responded that the presence of a drive-thru window was the most problematic aspect of their practices because it placed a lot of pressure on the pharmacy staff to multi-task leading to potential dispensing errors, delay and reduced efficiency. The pharmacists involved in the study made some suggestions on how to remedy the problem posed by the drive-thru– automated dispensing systems that count tablets or  are linked to the pharmacy computer system enabling them to complete the entire dispensing process. Automated dispensing systems are typically used for medications that are in particularly high demand, such as antibiotics, blood pressure medications and painkillers.

The survey results cited by Science Daily.com were published in a recent issue of the International Journal for Quality in Health Care. Szeinbach co-authored the study with Enrique Seoane-Vazquez and graduate students Ashish Parekh and Michelle Herderick, all of Ohio State’s College of Pharmacy.

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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.

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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!

After a few days in the hospital, the drug was flushed out of her system and thankfully Janet was discharged from the hospital and did not suffer any permanent damage. My friend suggested she call me to talk about her experience, something she was not comfortable doing. I respect that, as I am sure she wants to leave the experience in the past, but I cannot stress enough the importance of reporting these types of errors. Pharmacy errors happen all the time, and while many of them do not result in permanent injury, plenty of them can and do. I believe that there is great value to you, the prescription-consuming public, to report every occurrence of pharmacy error and invite anyone who has experienced pharmacy error, whether it be a dosage error, a dispensing error, or an error in how to take a medication, to write me (anonymously is okay) here at the blog and share your story. (You can, of course, call me for a free, confidential consultation, as well). There is power in information and power in numbers. The more anecdotal evidence we can compile about this often swept-under-the-rug threat to public safety, the more ammunition we will have to demand more accountability, and obtain better more effective safeguards and protections.

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