When Pharmacy Gives Wrong Medication, Prescription, or Dosage (Simple Guide)

What to Do When a Pharmacy Gives You the Wrong Medication, Prescription, or Dosage.
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This video will teach you about what types of mistakes Pharmacists commonly make and what you can do to preserve your health and legal rights.

When a Pharmacy gives you the wrong dosage, prescription, or medication it's called Pharmacy Negligence. Although Pharmacy mistakes are not considered Medical Malpractice, the Statute of Limitations on a Pharmacy negligence claim is only two years.

When a Pharmacy or Pharmacist dispenses the wrong medication or amount, the results can be fatal. At a Pharmacy, unfortunately, it's not really the Pharmacists who run the show. It's big Pharma and corporations who place greed and profits over people that cause most pharmaceutical mistakes.

Common Mistakes Made by a Pharmacy Include the Following:

High-Volume, High-Stress Pharmacies: Some pharmacies are designed to run like a fast food restaurant. This places a lot of stress on the employees and pharmacists, and increases the likelihood of the wrong medication or amount given to people.

A study shows that the most common causes of Pharmacy errors were due to too many phone calls, busy days, too many customers, lack of concentration, no one available to double-check, staffing shortages, similar drug names, no time to counsel the patient, illegible prescriptions, and misinterpreted prescriptions.

Sound-Alike Errors: Many medications have names that sound extremely similar to other prescriptions. The consequences of filling a prescription with a sound-alike medication could be the difference between getting lice poison instead of yeast infection treatment.

Improper Compounding Errors: Some pharmacies have the pharmacists literally create the medicine ordered by the doctor. This can lead to compounding errors, which can mean someone accidentally getting 3,000 times the strength of what was prescribed.

Substitution of Generic Drugs Without Informing the Patient: Sometimes Pharmacies dispense a generic version of a drug without informing the patient. Usually this doesn't cause any problems, but occasionally it does.

Failing to Counsel the Patient: A good pharmacist will ask the following questions:

1) What did your doctor tell you the drug is for?
2) How were you told to take the medication?
3) What directions did the doctor provide for taking the medication?

When a pharmacy dispenses the wrong prescription, medication, or dosage, it can lead to serious injuries or even death. Pharmacy mistakes are avoidable and if you suspect a pharmacy mistake, here are a few steps you can take immediately to preserve your health and legal rights:

1) Call Your Doctor Immediately
2) Call the Pharmacy Immediately
3) Don't give the bad medication back under any circumstances
4) Save the medication, bag, receipt, and bottle
5) Don't give a recorded statement to anyone without a lawyer

If you have any more questions about what to do when a pharmacy gives you the wrong prescription or dosage, please feel free to call me, Matt Powell, at 1-844-MATTLAW. You can also check out my website here:

0:00 Introduction to Pharmacy Mistakes
0:10 Medication errors
0:11 Pharmacy Malpractice
0:13 1.3 million people are injured every year from medication errors
0:20 There are 100,000 deaths each year caused by pharmacy errors
0:42 What should you do if you think the pharmacy made a mistake
0:48 Should I call my doctor
0:50 Should I call the pharmacy
0:55 Should I take back the bad medication
1:02 Should I save the bag and receipt
1:09 Why not give a recorded statement
1:13 How do I find an experienced lawyer for my pharmacy case
1:25 What are the most common mistakes made in a pharmacy
2:00 Why the pharmacies are dangerous
3:08 What are sound alike errors
3:40 What is a compounding error in a pharmacy
4:28 Is mislabeling of a prescription common
4:45 What is a contraindication mistake
5:22 Can acne medicine cause birth defects
5:30 Is it dangerous to take Warfarin and aspirin together
5:40 Is it wrong to sell medications that are expired
5:46 Is it okay to substitute generic medication for brand name
6:03 Communication breakdown in a pharmacy
6:04 What is patient counseling and why is it important
6:25 What should a pharmacist ask me
6:57 Should I call a lawyer for a free consultation

[jasonx]

This just happened to me yesterday with a CVS store pharmacy here in California. I always read the label on the bottle for the description of what the pills should look like and have printed on them. The blood pressure pills in the bottle didn’t match and I googled the pills and discovered they gave me 10MG instead of 5MG which could have caused death. If I had taken one and noticed the error I would definitely sue but instead I went back and had them correct it to which they apologized, looked worried, and literally gave me the correct pills in 3 minutes!

[gabrielsmith]

The same pharmacy messed up my prescription twice! The first time I had to take my prescription to the local PD to throw it out, and also buy the correct dosage afterwards ($50 in the trash, LITERALLY!). Now second time they want it back, so they can give me the correct one. I want to keep the messed up one, so I can have some power in court. However, I need the lower dosage to somewhat function and be productive member of society. Seems like they have way too much power! Do I even have the right to deny them the messed up prescription? They want the wrong dose prescription in order for me to get the correct one!

[newname]

Unfortunately, I need the correct medication immediately, and my pysche meds are a controlled substance. It kinda gets hard to fix their mistakes.

[Tajagee]

Today I went to CVS pharmacy and they literally gave me two boxes of a different inhaler. I’ve been using the same one since I’ve been a child and today when I needed to use my inhaler I had to use this one they gave me and it looks different on the outside but I assumed it was just a new look but when I took it I immediately panicked when I Inhaled the pump and it clearly tasted different and it did not provide me immediate relief like my fast acting one I’ve had since a child. I called CVS so fast ! The pharmacist said they are on back order for my prescription but now my chest hurts I kid you not and I’m shaking like I never have on anything I’ve ever taken I don’t know what to do or where to go from here but I’m about to pray on it 💯

[gamingnaddiction]

I just got shorted 30 klonopin... Pharmacy closed now. Don't know what to do

[tomboone]

I was given a blood pressure meds but it said anxiety on the bottle and it messed me up. I totaled my vehicle a week after receiving and taking the meds. I even continued to take the meds till they were gone and I was getting swollen legs, confusion among other symptoms

[buddysmilespopcornthesnake]

I get 45 suboxone a month got home they gave me 75 suboxone two boxes of 30 and a bag of 15. Was only charged for 45. Now I have an extra 30 and I literally cant believe my eyes right now. I never thought something like this could happen.

[blancaw]

Do pharmacists normally have malpractice insurance or would the lawsuit pursue the pharmacy itself and not the individual pharmacist? I am on about 5 different medications and go to a very busy national chain for my medication. On one occasion I was getting refills of different medications at the same time and instead of giving me the two separate medications, they gave me the same medication in two different bottles with the labels indicating that they were the two separate medications I was expecting. So I was getting a double dose of the one medication and none of the other medication. I didn't know that until after a few days I started feeling like horrible. Heart palpitations and the feeling of elevated blood pressure. One medication was a heart medication and the other for high blood pressure. It wasn't until I refilled both of these prescriptions again the following month and the proper medications were filled in each bottle that I realized that one of the pills should be a different shape and remembered that previously both had been the same. With the correct medication I began feeling normal again. At that point all the wrong medication had been consumed because it was a month later. I am very lucky I didn't have a major complication from this medication error. I never did anything about it because I felt it was too late and I probably couldn't prove it. I had thrown away everything because I didn't know there was a med error until a whole month later. I really regret I didn't know better at the time so I could have filed a lawsuit. This Pharmacy is crazy busy. Lines at the drive through can easily run a half hour and inside is even worse. I feel bad for the workers there, it must be miserable. I've only ever had that one mistake in 10 years, but it could have killed me.

[tashee]

What if you have an illness that is life-threatening and you MUST stay on the medication to avoid problems and no gap in Medicine in permitted? My mail order pharmacy always gets m fixation our late in the mail.

[ahlehaq]

If a prescription contains
12 mg deflazocort but currently I have 6 mg deflazocort, can i give a double dose of deflazocort without informing the patient about the unavailability of of deflazocort 12mg!

[billxmas]

I had my Walgreens put on the direction on my injection protocol to inject under tongue, been on this intermuscular injection for over 5 yrs, where in the hell would such ignorant carelessness​ come from, just found out past 3 Prescription are 1/2 the strength then the doctor prescribed, vials same size over 5 yrs never had a screw up, pass 6 months been feeling like crap now I know why, Udderly ridiculous, thankfully it wasn't anything like insulin or such that could easily kill someone if taken too much or too little .

[drjameelofficial]

i don't believe this. a pharmacist is specialized person and he can not make any mistake regarding this. there is some probability of error when unqualified staff is working at pharmacy. its bitter truth of the day that every pharmacy is running on behalf of unqualified staff. they even don't have the primary education of community pharmacy practice. they even don't know what exactly pharmacy is. but as far misunderstanding is concerned, errors are always there even with
a specialized buddy.

[fzybny]

pffff, dont RUSH the qquota a day? nope..too many customers complaining about how LONG they have to wait..

[tomboone]

I was given a blood pressure meds but it said anxiety on the bottle and it messed me up. I totaled my vehicle a week after receiving and taking the meds. I even continued to take the meds till they were gone and I was getting swollen legs, confusion among other symptoms