Can You Sue for a Pharmacy Dispensing the Wrong Medication?

Prescription medications are powerful drugs with the potential to cause serious harm when incorrectly prescribed or dispensed. When a pharmacy dispenses the wrong medication, it’s medical malpractice. If you or a close family member suffered an injury or worsened medical outcome due to pharmacy medical malpractice, you have the right to seek financial accountability through a claim against the pharmacy with a medical malpractice attorney in Chicago.

What Types of Medication Mistakes are Medical Malpractice?

Medication errors are among the most common forms of medical malpractice. Around 1.5 million people experience medication mistakes each year, costing about $3.5 billion in medical care for drug-injury victims. The most common medication errors in pharmacies include the following:

• Dispensing the wrong medication
• Dispensing an incorrect dosage of a medication
• Printing incorrect instructions on a prescription label
• Dispensing a medication to the wrong patient
• Mixing up medications prescribed to two different patients
• Failing to review patient history for contraindications or drug allergies

Although the prescribing physician may be liable for medical malpractice if the error occurred due to their failure to uphold their legal duty of care, the pharmacy could be liable for a patient’s damages if the mistake occurred within the pharmacy and not due to the prescribing doctor’s mistake.

How Does Pharmacy Malpractice Occur?

Many pharmacies are busy places, but pharmacists must follow strict safety protocols to ensure they dispense the correct medication at the prescribed dosage to the right patient. Unfortunately, sometimes a pharmacist cuts corners, misses a crucial step in the dispensing process, fails to follow safety protocols, or is distracted while dispensing medications, resulting in serious harm to a pharmacy customer. The most common causes of wrong medication dispensing include the following:

• Mixing up similar-sounding medication names
• Selecting the wrong medication bottle
• Mixing up prescriptions meant for different patients
• Allowing distraction to cause an error
• Failing to clarify unclear doctor’s handwriting on written prescriptions

After experiencing harm from a pharmacy’s mistake in dispensing a medication, you have the right to seek compensation if the mistake caused you physical harm and economic damages.

What to Do If Took the Wrong Medication Due to a Pharmacy Dispensing Error?

Realizing that you took the wrong medication is frightening, especially if you’re experiencing symptoms. It’s crucial to stop taking the medication as soon as you suspect it is incorrect. Then, seek medical attention. If it’s a life-threatening emergency, call 911.

Bring the prescription medication with you so the medical professionals can examine it and identify the type of medication, the dosage, and its potential physical effects on you, and provide the appropriate treatment to counteract the drug. Once you are physically well, keep the medication and its packaging, and then do the following:

• Alert the prescribing physician to the error and follow their directions carefully
• Notify the pharmacy of the mistake, request a copy of the original prescription, and ask them to fill out an incident report
• Obtain a copy of your medical report if you went to an emergency room or a trusted physician for care after taking the wrong medication
• Keep copies of all medical expenses and out-of-pocket costs
• Ask for an employer statement if you’ve missed work days due to the medication mistake
• Contact an Illinois medical malpractice lawyer

Proving medical malpractice can be a challenging legal process. A medical malpractice lawyer compiles evidence of the malpractice and your economic damages. Then they calculate an amount of compensation for your pain and suffering, and any permanent harm caused to you, before filing a claim for your losses.

What Can I Get From a Medical Malpractice Claim Against a Pharmacy?

Taking the wrong medication, wrong dosage, or a medication that has an adverse reaction to another medication you’re taking can cause injuries ranging from minor illness to serious medical outcomes, including life-threatening emergencies, permanent impairment, or death. A successful medical malpractice claim could recover the following damages:

• Past and future medical expenses
• Past and future income loss
• Out-of-pocket costs
• Lost earnings
• Future income loss or diminished earning ability
• Compensation for pain and suffering
• Catastrophic injury damages for permanent disability or impairment

If a pharmacy’s dispensing error caused a loved one’s death, your family could recover compensation for their grievous loss through a medical malpractice wrongful death claim against the pharmacy.