Why Do Prescription Drug Errors Happen?

Prescription Errors Happen One Million Times a Year

Prescription mistakes happen in pharmacies, doctors’ offices, and hospitals all the time. In an average hospital, there is one medication error every day per admitted patient. Each year, there are about one million medication mistakes. These errors result in thousands of injuries and about 7,000 deaths every year.

Medication mistakes happen in several different ways. Some of the most common drug errors include:

• Prescribing the Wrong Drug. Many doctors’ offices now use electronic prescription systems to order prescriptions digitally. These systems may make life easier for doctors and their patients, but they are not foolproof. In one case, a doctor selected “penicillamine” rather than “penicillin” from a computer’s drop-down drug list. The mistake resulted in a child’s hospitalization.
• Dispensing the Wrong Dosage. When it comes to prescription medication, a single misplaced decimal point can mean the difference between life and death. In 2010, a four-month-old baby in England died after a doctor’s receptionist wrote down 5 milliliters instead of .5 milliliters on a prescription. Both the doctor and the pharmacist who filled the prescription missed the error. Tragically, other children and adults have died because of similar mistakes.
• Failing to Catch Drug Interactions. When a patient takes multiple medications, there is always a possibility for a serious drug interaction. Although patients should always be straightforward and honest with health care providers about their health and the medications they’re taking, doctors and pharmacists also have a duty to check for possible drug interactions.
• Failure to Provide Adequate Instructions. When physicians get busy, they can rush through a visit with a patient. In an effort to treat as many patients as possible, they can scribble out a prescription without instructing the patient on the proper dosage, when to take the medicine, and how to take it.