Pharmacy Mistakes: Overworked Pharmacists?

Posted on February 19, 2008 by David Austin

Month's earlier the pharmacist had asked for more staff.  Why?  To "decrease the pharmacist's stress"

When Tabitha Jones picked up her stepson's medicine at a Walgreens store near Nashville in 2004, she had no way to know the pharmacy was so busy that its manager had asked for more staffing months earlier to "decrease the pharmacist's stress."

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A USA TODAY investigation found evidence that corporate policies — such as allowing or encouraging pharmacists to fill hundreds of prescriptions daily and rewarding fast work — can contribute to errors like the one that befell Trey Jones.

Source:  USA Today:  Pharmacy Errors

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Hep C patient given HIV drug instead.

Posted on February 1, 2008 by David Austin

Pharmacy errors are very dangerous.  That seems like an obvious statement, I know.  But here is a story I found that reveals what can happen when you are given the wrong drug.

A liver transplant patient has sued New York University Medical Center for $2 million, claiming the hospital's pharmacy gave him medicine for HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, when he tried to fill a prescription for hepatitis C medicine.

Gregory Rossini, 56, says in court papers that taking the wrong medication caused his hepatitis condition to worsen. Besides chills, dizziness, fever and loss of appetite and weight, his eyes and skin turned yellow, the lawsuit says.

Source:  NewsDay.com

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