Pharmacist Malpractice can be More Dangerous than Physician Malpractice

Cleveland, OH (Law Firm Newswire) February 25, 2011 – Doctor malpractice, while common, is not the only area in which malpractice happens. Pharmacist malpractice is alive and well in many states.

Most people tend to regard medical malpractice as the purview of doctors, nurses, aides and other medical professionals. More often than not, most of the med mal lawsuits filed do involve physicians, but that is not always the case. Medical malpractice lawsuits may also involve errors made by a pharmacist.

“Perhaps pharmacists errors are the most chilling types of med mal cases, because when we get a prescription filled that the doctor gave us, we do not think to question the pharmacist. We grab the bag, go home, take the pills and wait to get better, hopefully,” said Christopher Mellino. Mellino is a Cleveland medical malpractice lawyer of the Mellino Law Firm LLC, in Ohio.

Frighteningly, pharmacists may be guilty of committing malpractice in a number of ways, which may include filling the prescription incorrectly, not labeling the bottles properly or mislabeling them, telling a patient to take the wrong dose, not taking the time to find out what other drugs the patient is on to rule out a bad drug interaction/reaction and not fully explaining to the patient what the drug’s potential side effects may be.

“These errors are preventable in most, if not all, cases, and the fact that they happen is what makes them negligent actions. Keep in mind that although the pharmacist may be the liable for any injuries caused by negligence, they may not always be at fault,” Mellino said.

Unfortunately, the fault may lie with the doctor prescribing the medication. They may write down the medication or dose incorrectly or illegibly, may call one medication something else by mistake, may prescribe a dose that is too high, too low or too frequent for the patient or a myriad of other potential gaffs.

If the pharmacist does not check the prescription, the potential for disaster may well lie just around the corner. Additionally, most pharmacies have assistants that just count out the pills, as called for on the prescription. If they grab the wrong bottle off the shelf, there is another possibly serious or fatal error. In the scramble to find who may have been at fault in a case dealing with pharmacist error, it should not be forgotten that the victim may be entitled to compensation for their injuries.

“If this has happened to you, call an experienced Cleveland medical malpractice lawyer for advice and to find out if more than one person or party is to blame for your injuries,” Mellino said.

To learn more or to contact a Cleveland Medical Malpractice attorney or Cleveland malpractice attorney, visit http://www.christophermellino.com.

Mellino Law Firm LLC
200 Public Sq. Suite 2900
Cleveland, Ohio 44114
Call: (216) 241-1901