Many in Providence County, after having been written a prescription by their doctors, may go to their local pharmacies fully expecting those orders to be filled correctly. To prevent errors from happening, pharmacies may even have safeguards in place such as computer systems that warn them they may be dispensing the wrong medication. Yet even with added measures such as these, medication errors continue to happen. When they do, one’s only logical conclusion when trying to explain such mistakes may be to attribute them to human error.
That’s the claim that is being made in lawsuit filed by an Ohio man. The man received what he believed was high blood pressure medication from the pharmacy at a local Kroger store in late 2013. Shortly after beginning to take the medication, be began to experience disorientation and vomiting to the point of becoming severely dehydrated. He was eventually hospitalized and diagnosed as being in renal failure. After having the medication examined by another pharmacist, his wife discovered that he had actually been given an anti-seizure medication by the Kroger pharmacy.
A review of the Kroger pharmacy’s records showed that one tech assumed after looking at the pills that the order was correct due to the fact that both medications looked similar. Another was shown to have overridden the pharmacy’s computer system after it alerted him that the medication was incorrect.
A failure to adequately ensure that medications are correct or to heed to warnings given by verification systems may certainly be seen many as negligence. Those who suffer because of such negligence may wish to speak to an attorney to discuss what their options may be in pursuing legal action.
Source: WXIX “Man claims wrong medication from Kroger accelerated kidney failure” Baldwin, Michael, Aug. 14, 2016