The pharmaceutical industry has made great strides in developing medications to help people live longer and enjoy a better quality of life. For them to work, a person needs the correct medication and dosage.
Unfortunately, that does not always happen. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration receives over 100,000 reports of a suspected medication error every year. Three common reasons it continues to happen include:
1. Failing to identify potential drug interactions
With more prescriptions on the market, it often means people have a plethora of pills to take daily. Considering that many medications have newly arrived as an option, it opens the door for an error in identifying potentially negative drug interactions. These interactions may create severe side effects or even result in fatalities.
2. Dispensing an incorrect medication
While one expects healthcare professionals to provide the right medication, many factors can create a situation in which a person receives the wrong medications. This can happen in the form of a doctor prescribing the wrong prescription or the pharmacist inadvertently providing a person with the incorrect prescription. Taking the wrong medication may lead to severe consequences.
3. Miscalculating proper dosage
Even if a person receives the right drug, the dosage and strength remain vital to a person’s safety. Even simple situations, such as reading a label incorrectly or hearing patient information incorrectly, may result in providing improper dosage.
As the healthcare industry continues to evolve, it also opens the door for errors. Considering the severity of a wrong prescription, it remains vital to hold healthcare professionals accountable for errors.