Nearly 4 billion prescriptions for medication are filled each year in the United States with almost one third of those being filled at either a Walgreens or CVS pharmacy. Unfortunately, every year millions of people receive an incorrect prescription. Many of them suffer serious or even fatal health consequences.

The number of prescriptions drug errors has increased dramatically over the past several years and the problem is expected to worsen as aging baby boomers and others increasingly rely on prescription medications.

Prescription drug errors should be prevented through the implementation of appropriate procedures and precautions and the application of reasonable care. When they are not and serious or catastrophic harm results to the patient, the responsible parties should be held accountable.

Common pharmacy mistakes include:

• Dispensing the wrong medication
• Dispensing the wrong dosage
• Confusing drugs that look alike or have similar sounding names
• Miscommunication between pharmacist and doctors
• Failure to protect against harmful drug interactions
• Failure to provide adequate counseling
• Failure to indentify drug allergies

Common causes of medication errors include:

• More prescriptions-fewer pharmacists
• Speed over safety
• Reliance on technicians
• Tying pay to volume
• Distractions
• Inadequate regulations
• Doctor error/malpractice

Precautions you can take to avoid prescription errors include:

• Talk with your doctor
• Write down drug name and dosage
• Select a reputable pharmacy
• Check the label
• Open the bottle
• Talk with the pharmacist
• Avoid the beginning of the month
• Avoid the drive-up window

Many pharmacy errors are preventable. At Hannon & Boyers, we believe that using the legal system to hold negligent pharmacies and negligent pharmacists accountable for the harm that they cause protects consumers. Accountability helps to reduce the overall incidence of pharmacy errors and pharmacist negligence. Our Florida pharmacy negligence lawyers work with the leading industry experts to prove your case.

While one of our partners will serve as lead counsel on every pharmacy error case we handle, our lawyers, paralegals and investigators work as a team to achieve substantial compensation for our clients who have been harmed by medication errors.

If you or a member of your family has suffered harm as a result of taking the wrong medication or some other prescription drug mistake anywhere in the state of Florida, contact a Miami pharmacy error lawyer today for a free evaluation of your case. Our Miami injury lawyers handle pharmacy negligence cases throughout the state of Florida.

• Common adverse consequences of medication errors
• Medication Error/Pharmacy Error Statistics