What to Do if you Think Your Pharmacist has Made a Mistake
Human error is to be expected at least sometimes in any field, but when it happens in certain settings, the results can be much more dramatic than usual. Receiving medication is one such area where mistakes should not be made, particularly because an incorrect prescription or the incorrect filling of a prescription at a pharmacy can create many different health problems, or even in some cases be deadly. Hopefully you can catch pharmaceutical mistakes before such health complications arise, but what should you do if you think that your pharmacist has made a mistake?
The first thing that you should do is, obviously without taking the incorrect medication or dosage, contact the pharmacy. It is very possible that it wasn’t an error and is indeed a misunderstanding of how the prescription works. You want to rule this out before jumping to any conclusions or panicking. If you pharmacist has indeed made a mistake, he or she should correct it as soon as possible and get the correct medication or dosage to you as soon as possible. This is primarily by the end of the situation if it was a pharmacy error with a correct prescription.
Additionally, the pharmacist should inform the doctor about the mistake, especially if any medications were taken, as this might cause an issue that could come up later. If the mistake was not on the part of the pharmacy, but instead was an incorrect prescription written, the doctor will then need to be informed so that he or she can write a new one and start the process of getting the correct medication to you. Typically, a plan will then be made or notes taken to prevent this sort of mistake in the future.
Hopefully, any pharmacy mistakes you have been involved with have been minor and easily corrected. If this was not the case, however, and serious medical damage was done, you most likely have grounds to file a medical malpractice case against the pharmacist or doctor to see restitution gained for you. To learn about how we at the Franco Law Firm can help you through this process and to schedule a free consultation with us today, please call us at (813) 872-0929.
