Prescription management can become quite complicated for a New York patient dealing with several medical conditions. However, a medication error can affect anyone, including someone taking just a single prescription. Although more medications require more careful monitoring for issues such as drug interactions, the manner in which a medication is labeled can also lead to confusion. The United States Food and Drug Administration is working on improving practices related to drug containers and labeling to head off some potential areas of error.
Prescription management can become quite complicated for a New York patient dealing with several medical conditions. However, a medication error can affect anyone, including someone taking just a single prescription. Although more medications require more careful monitoring for issues such as drug interactions, the manner in which a medication is labeled can also lead to confusion. The United States Food and Drug Administration is working on improving practices related to drug containers and labeling to head off some potential areas of error.
A major focus of the FDA is the potential for error with products that look alike or that have similar names. A misreading of a drug name on a container could lead to a pharmacy dispensing the wrong product. In turn, this could lead to serious consequences based on an individual receiving a dangerous combination of prescriptions or the wrong medication for a serious condition. The FDA is recommending that those designing and marketing these products do their own risk assessment to minimize the potential for error as well.
A patient may not be aware of the dangers of combining certain drugs, which makes the monitoring activity of physicians and pharmacy personnel important. In some cases, warnings in a patient’s profile at a pharmacy may cause an alert to be raised about any risky drugs being prescribed. If such warnings are ignored, a bad reaction to a new medication could result in a liability issue for the pharmacy in question.
A patient could have an allergic reaction to a new medication, which could lead to serious or even deadly health consequences. In some cases, the party prescribing or dispensing a medication might have a clue about possible allergic reactions because of a patient’s allergy to a separate but related medication. If a serious injury occurs because of inadequate precautions being taken, medical malpractice litigation might be advisable.
