Pharmacists' Legal Obligations: Mclaughlin vs. Hooks Case

“Medical malpractice occurs when a hospital, doctor or other health care professional, through a negligent act or omission, causes an injury to a patient. The negligence might be the result of errors in diagnosis, treatment, aftercare or health management.” (Admin) One of the most common type of claims that pharmacies face are negligence claims. Negligence is one of the categories that falls under the area of law called Torts. In the Hundley v Rite Aid case, a tort was filed for injuries that were sustained by Gabrielle Hundley after she took medication from an incorrectly filed prescription. The case involved a jury trial verdict involving Gabrielle Hundley, a minor child, against Howard Jones, the pharmacist, and the Rite

Nurses are responsible for multiple patients on any given day making medication errors a potential problem in the nursing field. Medication administration not only encompasses passing medication to the patients yet begins with the physician prescribing the medication, pharmacy filling the correct prescription and ending with the nurse administering and monitoring the patient for any adverse effect from the medication. According to the National Coordinating Council for Medication Error Reporting and Prevention (NCCMERP), ‘A medication error refers to any preventable event that may cause or lead to inappropriate medication use or patient harm while the medication is in the control of the healthcare professional,

Section 64 (1) of the Act states that “No person shall, to the prejudice of the purchaser, sell any medicinal product which is not of the nature or quality demanded by the purchaser (The Medicines Act, 1968). This essentially means that every time a patient is accidently handed a wrong medicine- one that was not on the prescription, the pharmacist faces not only disciplinary action,

According to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA 2009), the wrong route of administrating medication accounts for 1.3 million injuries each year. An article published in September issue of the Journal of Patient Safety estimates there are between 210,000 and 400,000 deaths per year associated with medical errors. This makes medical errors the third leading cause of deaths in the United States, behind that comes heart disease and cancer. To prevent medical errors always follow the Three Checks and most importantly the Rights of Medication Administration. The “Rights of Medication Administration” helps to ensure accuracy when administering medication to a patient. When administering medication the administer should ensure they have the Right Medication, Right Patient, Right Dosage, Right Route, Right Time, Right Route, Right Reason, and Right Documentation. Also remember the patient has the right to refuse, assess patient for pain, and always assess the patient for signs of effects.

Specify the types of country risks that pharmaceutical firms face in international business. How do the political and legal systems of countries affect the global pharmaceutical industry?

This writer met with the patient to address the conflicting issue with his medication. According to the patient, his PCP was prescribing him with his benzodiazepine medications; however, the patient says, " I had to seek a psychiatrist because it was only temporary." This explains the conflicting issues with the Rx Scripts on file. The patient started his treatment with his now psychatrist on 6/12/2017 and signed an ROI. Addressing picking up his medication from two different pharmacy, the patient was advise that he needs to be pick up his medication with only one pharmacy as it is required. The patient agreed to the terms and said, " I like CVS better than Walgreens. Sometimes they would my refill to Walgreens or whatever is closer to me,

While this is a serious error by institutional standards, it fails to meet the tort definition of negligence. There was a duty of care to this patient who was admitted to the hospital. A breach of that duty occurred when the patient was given the incorrect medication. The requirement of injury necessary to meet the definition of negligence was not me. There was no reported adverse outcome reported from the single dose of the incorrect medication. Due to lack of injury, there appears to be no risk to the institution from negligence surrounding the medication

If anyone other than the patient takes the medication, the patient is liable and may be legally punished.

drugs can be potentially dangerous for a patient, particularly if they are receiving medications from different clinicians who are not communicating with each

Medication errors are focused on: terms and definitions; incidence of and harm; risk factors; avoidance; disclosure, legalities & consequences (Wittich, Burkle & Lanier, 2014). Medication errors categories have been developed by the American Society of Health-System Pharmacists (ASHP). Examples of these categories are based on prescribing, omitting drugs not administered, timing, unauthorized drug, wrong dosage, wrong preparation, expired drug, not using laboratory data to monitor toxicity (Wittich, Burkle & Lanier, 2014). Additionally, this article examines in depth common causes leading to medication errors, drug nomenclature, similar sounding drugs, unapproved abbreviations and handwriting, medical staff shortages and manufacturer medication shortages. Even though this article provides an informative overview for physicians, other allied health personnel may benefit too. This is valuable knowledge for the health care professional not just physicians in order to provide safe care for their

The fear of medical malpractice lawsuits is an issue faced by all who practice medicine. To avoid public criticism by colleagues or the public from their profession and sometimes lose their ability to practice, physicians, and doctors feel forced to follow published standards of care. These treatments often include prescribing medications made to treat

While I was on my clinical rotation at Wal-Mart, I counseled a patient on her Warfarin prescription. During this rotation, I was doing most of the counsels under the direct supervision of the pharmacist. This particular experience, however, stood out from the rest of the consultations because she seemed very angry when picking up the medicine. I approached her and was prepared to deal with an angry patron. I started counseling her regarding her medication and she stated, “don’t worry, it doesn’t work anyway. My INR keeps going down even though they are upping the dose, and nobody cares about it.” This really raised a red flag with me because of the class of medication this is. I informed her that we cared and asked her what I could do to help her.

A physician could make mistakes in prescribing, the pharmacy could send the wrong medication, but who actually gave it to the patient is accountable for the consequences. For this reason, it’s our responsibility to implement change in our practice based on the evidence in order to ensure safe patient care.

I have worked in a pharmacy over many years and have seen many mistakes happen with a good and bad ending. The two most common mistakes that are not the fault of the pharmacist are giving the wrong prescription to the wrong customer at check out and not following HIPPA standards. There are many cases where customers can have common names and are given the wrong prescription due to lack of verification. I have personally heard of a customer calling back because they realized they have the wrong medication. An instance of such could go in a very bad direction if a customer takes the medication and causes health problems or death, which would result in a malpractice lawsuit. Although it was not the pharmacist error because it was an employee working under the pharmacist, the pharmacist could lose their license and much money due to this mistake. As long as the pharmacist has professional liability insurance this mistake would be covered and licenses would not be threatened to be taken.

The profession of Pharmacy is not only the science of practicing of preparation and dispensing of medicinal drugs but also providing quality of life to the individuals/patients.pharmacists are one of the health care providers who act as mediators between physicians and the patients. The profession of pharmacy is well managed globally specially in the developed countries. Since the pharmacists are the only professionals who manufacture the medicines and have an in-depth knowledge about the drugs, they should be given treatment rights on par with the physicians. The careers of pharmacists are diverse if they are well recognized. Hence the government of India should take proper steps to manage the pharmaceutical industry and show them better career prospects.