Florida Pharmacy Error Attorneys

Fighting for Victims of Pharmaceutical & Medication Mistakes

Millions of Americans rely on pharmaceutical medications to treat and/or prevent a wide variety of conditions. Unfortunately, a large number of individuals also fall victim to pharmaceutical mistakes. In contrast to defective drug claims, in which the patient is harmed by the drug itself, pharmaceutical error cases involve negligence/malpractice on the part of a pharmacy or member of its staff.

If you believe you or your loved one is the victim of a pharmaceutical error, contact Michles & Booth as soon as possible. With over 80 years of combined experience, our Florida pharmaceutical error attorneys can investigate your claim and determine if you have a case. If so, they are prepared to aggressively advocate for you and your recovery.

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Get started with a free initial consultation when you call 850-438-4848. We have offices in Pensacola, Crestview, Fort Walton Beach, and Tampa.

Common Pharmaceutical Errors

Like medical doctors, other medical professionals, pharmacists and pharmacy staff are held to a high standard of care. When they do not meet this standard, innocent individuals can suffer grave consequences. At Michles & Booth, we believe that negligent pharmacies should be held accountable.

Some examples of common pharmaceutical errors include:

• Filling the wrong prescription
• Providing the wrong patient with medication
• Dosage errors, including both under- and over-dosage
• Failure to warn of side effects
• Failure to warn of drug interactions
• Incorrect/improper instructions

These mistakes can happen for a wide variety of reasons—there may be miscommunication between the prescribing physician and the pharmacy, a pharmacist may misread a prescription, or the pharmacist may fail to warn the patient of potential side effects and interactions with other drugs. No matter the cause, pharmaceutical errors can result in serious injury, illness, and even death. Victims and their loved ones should not have to simply deal with these consequences on their own.

Why Do Medication Errors Happen?

One form of medication error is when a medication that is contra-indicated is nonetheless prescribed, ordered, and administered to a patient, causing harm to the patient.

A contraindication is a specific situation in which a drug, procedure, or surgery should not be used because it may be harmful to the person. – MedlinePlus.Gov

Imagine a patient who has a severe allergy to a specific medication. This patient could have a complicated medical history and need the medication to treat a host of symptoms, that overlap with and mask the symptoms caused by the adverse reaction itself.

Some patients will present to emergency rooms with a host of concerning symptoms and a medication list with more than a dozen active medications. Taking an accurate and thorough history can be absolutely critical to identifying potential allergic reactions as well as critical to assisting future care providers who will rely on the first information that is put onto a patient’s chart.

This can involve a physician having to call a patient’s primary care office, having to call or speak to family members, or gather other sources of collateral information, and/or it could require a physician to review older or earlier charts they might have accessed through the electronic medical system available at the hospital, or office.

It is at this level of detail where mistakes are often made in the provision of medical care.

What is The Greatest Cause of Medication Errors?

Lack of patient information is perhaps the greatest cause of medication errors.

The treating physician undoubtedly has a duty to make reasonable efforts to obtain accurate information relevant to their treatment. This can include an obligation to perform an investigation to gather the relevant information.

Imagine a patient who comes into the ER who is obviously suffering from a medication allergy or even one whose conditions show that a medication allergy should be in the differential diagnosis.

These reactions can include a syndrome referred to as TENS, or toxic epidermal necrolysis. The skin literally is in the process of falling off the body. This is a fast-acting condition that progresses rapidly.

The patient could be unconscious and unable to provide the physician with what medications they take, they’ve changed, or they may have recently added. Under the circumstances, it might be required for the training physician to page those care providers or pharmacies who have better information than him or her, so they can ensure their list of active medications is accurate.

Unfortunately, communication failures play into almost every medical malpractice case I have ever worked on.

Information is communicated in the healthcare setting in weird ways. End-of-shift reports are given between nurses and physicians. Information is entered into both paper and electronic charts that are only accessible to those later providers who actively go and seek it out.

The results of imaging studies are communicated in an initial read, and later more formally in a written report, and at every step, there are opportunities for information to be lost, misunderstood, or omitted. All of this to the detriment of patient care.

Medication errors can happen when a patient’s clinical status is not accurately reported.

A patient’s clinical status may not be accurately reported after an overnight shift or improperly and inaccurately communicated between providers. When input and output data is trivialized or when information another healthcare provider entered into the chart is taken for granted as gospel simply because it was written down, errors often occur. For example, an initial medication list is never double-checked or further investigated over many days by many providers, maybe even over weeks of treatment.

Medication errors can happen because not every patient is created equal.

The elderly, the very young, those with diminished renal function or underlying chronic conditions, all of these groups metabolize and handle different types of drugs in different ways. Certain drugs are metabolized in the liver. Other drugs are metabolized throughout other systems in the body.

Each patient must be evaluated as an individual when medication dosing decisions are being made. Even gender can play a role in drug metabolization. While on its surface a medication error might seem like a simple case, in truth, a medication error case is a subset of medical malpractice.

What to Do If a Pharmacy Made a Mistake with Your Medication

The medical profession is filled with outstanding doctors that put forth a high standard in treating patients, prescribing medication, and following up with their patients but, sometimes, the wrong medication or the wrong dosage is prescribed or administered by the doctor, hospital staff, nursing home, or pharmacy. If this happened to you, we encourage you to reach out to our Florida pharmaceutical error attorneys right away for a free consultation. You may be entitled to compensation for your damages, including medical bills for treatment you needed as a result of the error, lost income/wages, pain and suffering, and more.

Our award-winning attorneys and staff, including in-house investigators and a board-certified medical doctor, can build a solid case on your behalf. We understand the challenges you face—and we know what it takes to recover the full, fair compensation you are owed. If you were harmed as a result of a pharmaceutical error or medication mistake, don’t be a victim twice; contact Michles & Booth today.

Call our office at 850-438-4848 or submit an online case evaluation form to get started with your free, confidential consultation.