Posted on 06/03/2005 12:56:43 PM PDT by SmithL
MIAMI -- A Florida appeals court has ruled for the first time that pharmacists can be held liable for failing to warn about risks associated with use of drugs repeatedly or in harmful combinations, even if they are filling a doctor's prescriptions.
The 4th District Court of Appeal, reversing a state circuit court's ruling, decided this week that Robert Powers can pursue claims of negligence against two pharmacies — Your Druggist and The Medicine Shoppe — that filled his wife Gail's prescriptions for neck and back pain. She died of an overdose.
The negligence claims against the pharmacies were dismissed on April 23, 2004, by a trial judge, who said that under Florida law druggists are not liable if they are filling a doctor's legal prescriptions.
The appeals court reversed that decision in its ruling Wednesday, giving Powers another chance to pursue his claims. The ruling did not determine whether Powers might succeed on the merits of the lawsuit.
Pharmacists already must have "general knowledge" of the medicines they dispense as well as the risks they present, the court found.
"Thus a strong policy basis already exists supporting a pharmacist's duty to warn customers of the risks inherent in filling repeated and unreasonable prescriptions with potentially fatal consequences," Judge Mark E. Polen wrote for the court.
The pharmacies plan to appeal.
(Excerpt) Read more at sfgate.com ...
This ruling + trial lawyers = another 40% rise in health care costs.
And just think how liable they'll be when they fill a prescription for "Morning after" pills for a 14 year old while Mommy and Daddy aren't aware, and said 14 year old ends up in the Hospital.
So9
I work in the pharmacy benefits business. You wouldn't believe how much screaming we get because we refuse to fill an RX at mail service because of the quantity/strength of the medication, or because of the interactions with other medications that the patient is taking.
This isn't fair. The doctors are responsible for all of that, not the pharmacies.
If the pharmacies screw up and give you the wrong medication, sure they're liable. But if the doctor screws up and gives you a bad combination of prescriptions, the pharmacy isn't liable because they filled your prescriptions.
This is ridiculous. Next thing you know, pharmacists will be required to go to Med School.
That said, if a pharmacist does know of a conflict between two medications prescribed for a single person, they should feel free to inform the person to consult another doctor for a second opinion before taking the drugs.
Did one pharmacy fill one prescription and the other fill a different prescription? That's kind of how it sounds to me, but the writing is a bit sloppy, as per usual. If that's the case, they're gonna have to hire psychic pharmacists from now on.
as I stated in another post, 90% of all lawyers are the scum of the earth...
That's what it's all about, isn't it? It's this guy's ticket to undeserved wealth, and its a hidden tax that the rest of us will pay. Actually, one we're already paying, and one whose rate increases each time one of these lawsuits is filed.
Tell me...how do you think this ruling will work with the new HIPPA laws?
I see major conflicts brewing...
My understanding is that if we reject a claim from retail due to interaction, we can advise the retail pharmacist what the interaction is (once we verify them as the retail pharmacy) because they're considered to be a trusted source/contractor. That allows us to discuss the issues with them.
But who knows - a lot of HIPAA is in the corporations translation.
Unlike most people here, no doubt, I think that this was the right decision. Pharmacists aren't vending machines. They are responsible for compounding medicines when the dosage or formulation needed is not available commercially. They certainly should know drug side effects and interactions. In fact, they ought to have a wider breadth of knowledge than doctors do, because many doctors specialize while pharmacists deal with all medicines.
The amount of money that I think he should receive is a totally different issue.
It's a bad time to be a pharmacist. You can be sued for selling the stuff and sued for not selling the stuff.
A woman too sick or too lazy to read the info sheets routinely provided by pharmacists can get herself in bad trouble, lqwyers or not. She undoubtedly got the info but failed to follow the warnings.
If this type of lawsiut starts taking off, my wife's malpractice insurance premium will go up probably 100 times it's current amount within 5 years. Currently she has $1 million of coverage for a pittance of just over $100/year.
"This isn't fair. The doctors are responsible for all of that, not the pharmacies.
If the pharmacies screw up and give you the wrong medication, sure they're liable. But if the doctor screws up and gives you a bad combination of prescriptions, the pharmacy isn't liable because they filled your prescriptions."
You're assuming that one doctor always writes all prescriptions. Today, with the specialization of medicine, doctors don't always communicate with each other as they should over patient care and they occasionally prescribe medications without knowing what the other one has prescribed. In some cases they don't even know that the patient has seen another doctor. In those cases, assuming the patient gets all prescriptions filled at one pharmacy, the pharmacist is the only medical professional who has all the info at hand. In effect, he/she is the last line of defense. You could make the case then that, while the doctors are most at fault, the pharmacist also has a responsibility. If all that was required of pharmacists was to dispense pills according to the slips they're handed, anyone could do it. They go to pharmacy school for a reason.
And before anyone says that in the cases I described, the patient has the ultimate responsibilty to inform the doctors/pharmacists of any other meds he/she is taking, I'm thinking specifically of older patients who might be losing their mental faculties and getting forgetful.
Btw, I've had a pharmacy give me the wrong medication and, no, I didn't sue.
Pharmacies, the new deep-pockets.
you ain't wrong
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