Electronic Prescriptions May Reduce Dangerous Medication Errors

Imagine you’re a pharmacy technician. You receive yet another scrawled prescription from a doctor. You can tell the medication starts with Z. It’s Zyrtec or Zantac, but you’re not sure. You put it down and move to the next prescription, intending to check on it later. Another technician comes in and decides it looks like Zyrtec. It is fall allergy season, and a lot of people have been asking for the drug.
The drug prescribed was actually Zantac. Fortunately Zyrtec is a fairly safe drug. It is available over the counter. But, the patient who received the prescription was in danger of developing a stomach ulcer. Because he got the wrong prescription, he experienced weeks of painful symptoms.
A Weill Cornell Medical College study found that 88 percent of paper prescriptions are illegible. When a patient receives the wrong medication, he isn’t just put at risk of dangerous side effects, he also risks not having his medical condition properly treated. This can cause the patient to get sicker, or even die.
Most Texas pharmacy mistakes are the result of human error. A doctor may write down the wrong drug or a pharmacist might read a prescription incorrectly. Electronic prescriptions may help prevent these errors.
Electronic prescription systems can prevent Texas prescription errors in several ways. First, a doctor must click to select medications from an onscreen list. The prescription data is then sent through the computer to the pharmacy eliminating the need for barely legible handwritten prescriptions.
The Cornell Study found only 7 errors per 100 prescriptions when doctors used e-prescribing software. This doesn’t sound great until you compare it to 37 errors per 100 paper prescriptions.
Victims of pharmacy errors in Texas have the right to seek accountability through medical malpractice lawsuits. To learn more, contact the Dallas drug injury attorneys at the Rasansky Law Firm at (214) 651-6100.