Historically, the pharmacist job was
pretty straightforward and pharmacist legal liability was considered minimal. A
drug would be dispensed by a pharmacist based on the prescription. The
responsibility to warn patients about their prescriptions has commonly been put
on the drug manufacturers who make the drugs and compose the drug labels, as
well as the doctors who write the prescriptions.
According to the National Association of Chain Drug Stores (NACDS), courts generally ruled that physicians bore more responsibility since they were the ones choosing which drugs to prescribe. The standard pharmacist defense has been that the pharmacist's duty extends only to accurately filling the prescription as written. In fact, 40 years ago, according to the Code of Ethics of the American Pharmaceutical Association, it was not professional for a pharmacist to even tell the patient the name of the drug unless they had permission from the prescribing doctor.
Recently, however, drug injury cases are increasing and some of these injuries are based on prescription blunders including, patients given the wrong dose, or even the wrong drug. The rise of these kinds of mistakes is putting pharmacists at an increasing legal risk.
Courts in some states are ruling that pharmacists have a duty to warn their patients about potential drug risks, moving away from the opinion that physicians must bear the majority of responsibility. Other states have considered the pharmacist's duty to warn is limited to certain situations such as when there are threats from drug interactions or prescription mistakes that were clear.
Professional responsibility is being emphasized by new pharmacy industry standards. The old perspective of limited responsibility is counter to the means that pharmacy schools train and teach today. The courts are seeing that failure to fulfill this responsibility is pharmaceutical negligence and are starting to understand this increased duty of pharmacists.
To find out more about pharmacist liability, contact us!
According to the National Association of Chain Drug Stores (NACDS), courts generally ruled that physicians bore more responsibility since they were the ones choosing which drugs to prescribe. The standard pharmacist defense has been that the pharmacist's duty extends only to accurately filling the prescription as written. In fact, 40 years ago, according to the Code of Ethics of the American Pharmaceutical Association, it was not professional for a pharmacist to even tell the patient the name of the drug unless they had permission from the prescribing doctor.
Recently, however, drug injury cases are increasing and some of these injuries are based on prescription blunders including, patients given the wrong dose, or even the wrong drug. The rise of these kinds of mistakes is putting pharmacists at an increasing legal risk.
Courts in some states are ruling that pharmacists have a duty to warn their patients about potential drug risks, moving away from the opinion that physicians must bear the majority of responsibility. Other states have considered the pharmacist's duty to warn is limited to certain situations such as when there are threats from drug interactions or prescription mistakes that were clear.
Professional responsibility is being emphasized by new pharmacy industry standards. The old perspective of limited responsibility is counter to the means that pharmacy schools train and teach today. The courts are seeing that failure to fulfill this responsibility is pharmaceutical negligence and are starting to understand this increased duty of pharmacists.
To find out more about pharmacist liability, contact us!
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