This page is about wrong prescription lawsuits. Too many people get the wrong prescription every day in Maryland. Most patients getting the wrong medication do not suffer severe injuries. Yet up to 9,000 people die every year from medication errors nationwide.
This page is about medication mistake lawsuits and the settlement amounts and jury payouts victims receive in these claims. Our lawyers provide information on the average settlement compensation for a wrong prescription lawsuit and look at example cases and their outcomes.
Background
Our law office gets a lot of calls involving pharmacy and anesthesia errors involving either the administration of improper medication or the failure to administer medication. It is not surprising, given that an astronomical 1.5 million people are victims of medication errors every year, according to a report by The Institute of Medicine of the National Academies.
According to the National Coordinating Council for Medication Error Reporting and Prevention, more people die annually from medication errors than from on-the-job injuries.
Fortunately, most of these injuries – particularly the pharmacy misfills – are benign, but pharmaceutical medication errors still account for almost a quarter of medical malpractice cases.
Who is making these mistakes? There is a lot of blame to go around. Doctors, nurses, and pharmacists are all frequent defendants in these cases.
The Prescription Error Cases Our Attorneys Regularly See
The most common types of drug medication lawsuits our lawyers see are:
- Improper medication combinations – There are many prescription error cases where the drugs would be prescribed appropriately alone but cause severe or fatal injuries together. These problems can be resolved by reading the package inserts, and some hospitals and pharmacies have computer programs to assist in avoiding errors. Yet there are still thousands of injuries from improper prescription combinations every year.
- Wrong medication – The pharmacy simply gives the patient the wrong medication because of a pharmacy misfill. According to Jury Verdict Research, plaintiffs prevail at trial in 31% of these pharmacy misfill cases. The most common wrong medication cases involve antibiotics. There are close to 6,800 prescription medications, and doctors often get the type of medication wrong
- Handwriting errors – Our lawyers still commonly see the failure to administer the proper dosage from handwriting transcription errors. In the fortunate cases, handwriting error will only delay the time until patients receive their prescribed drug. At worst, a misread order can lead to severe injury or death.
- Drug name mix-ups – Many prescription drugs have similar-sounding names. The physician and pharmacist must ensure they are not negligent in prescribing or dispensing the wrong medication. You would think this would be rare, but name confusion is among the most common causes of prescription errors. A prime example is the confusion between the epilepsy drug Lamictal and the antifungal drug Lamisil. Years ago, scores of pharmacies were interchangeably filling prescriptions for Lamictal and Lamisil to the point where the FDA and Glaxo were required to send “Dear Doctor” letters advising of the confusion. Usually, there is no significant injury., Still, with the wrong drug or the wrong patient, the injuries can be catastrophic or fatal. With the Lamictal/Lamisil confusion, the possible consequences of this mix-up were severe, primarily for epileptic patients receiving Lamisil who could not control seizures, which is obviously a big deal. Patients receiving Lamictal by mistake were at risk for less serious side effects such as blood pressure problems, rashes, and other troubling but not severe side effects.
- Adverse effects of medication – Many prescription drugs have side effects that have severe and fatal consequences. Sometimes, these injuries are the regrettable side effects of the medication. In other cases, the doctor knew or should have known that the drug’s risks outweigh the benefits. Often, doctors are given a huge heads-up of the possible risk with a black box warning. The central issue in these medical malpractice cases is whether the doctor was reasonable in prescribing the medication in light of the patient’s medical history, physical condition, and all relevant diagnostic imaging or laboratory data. Another big issue in these cases is informed consent. Did the physician apprise the patient of the risks?
- Allergic reaction to medication – A subset of adverse effects, allergic reactions are usually challenging to detect. But if the prescribing doctor knows or has reason to know of the allergic reaction, often because the allergy is documented, it is a medical mistake that is medical malpractice.
Statistics on Medication Error Lawsuits
The first thing to remember in these cases is that improper medication cases in this country that go to trial are often challenging cases of either negligence or causation. The best cases for the plaintiffs are improper dosage cases in which, according to Jury Verdict Research, the injury victim prevails 40% of the time at trial. The most difficult cases for plaintiff’s medication error lawyers to prevail are inappropriate medication cases; plaintiffs prevail in 23% of these cases.
With respect to verdicts, the median verdict in medication error cases is $250,000. But this underscores that many prescription error lawyers are willing to take smaller cases (our law firm only handles severe injury and death cases). Average settlement for medication errors are pretty misleading. A much different way to look at these numbers is that 60% of medication error cases result in a jury verdict over $1,000,000.
- Get more medication error statistics here.
You are probably wondering where the Maryland verdicts are. These cases do not seem to go to verdict in Maryland, at least not in recent years.
Keep in mind that while these verdicts are great tools for understanding the value of these cases, they are just one tool that, used alone, is relatively meaningless. Too many variables go into a jury’s thinking on these claims, and these short summaries – that picked over a lot of defense verdicts – cannot provide.
Example Medication Error Lawsuits in Maryland
Below are examples of recently filed medication error malpractice lawsuits in Maryland with the story behind the claim.
- A brain injury wrong prescription error lawsuit filed in Montgomery County after a nurse mistakenly gives a patient Epinephrine instead of Ephedrine
- Another medication error case involving a medication error in a hospice setting in Salisbury
- Nursing homes are a familiar venue for medication errors. This is a nursing home wrongful death medication error case in Baltimore County against FutureCare nursing home after a woman died due to medications the doctors knew placed her at high risk for hypoglycemia.
- A lawsuit against Johns Hopkins in Baltimore claiming that a woman’s anoxic brain injury and eventual death was caused by a medication to which she had a known allergy
- This is a lawsuit against a nursing home in Cumberland after a woman died getting medicine prescribed for another patient.
How Much are Medication Error Malpractice Lawsuits Worth?
The average jury verdict for medical malpractice cases involving a medication error is $3.5 million. The median jury award in medication error cases is $1.2 million.
The median amount is the more accurate estimate of how much these cases are worth if you win at trial. The average settlement value for medication error cases is somewhere in the $400,000 to $600,000 range.
What Is the Most Common Type of Medication Error Malpractice?
The most common types of medication errors in malpractice cases include dosage mistakes (too much or too little medication is prescribed), administration errors (the medication or the wrong amount of medicine is administered to the patient), and harmful medicine combinations (medicine combinations cause adverse results).
Here’s a chart from a 2023 study detailing the most common harms associated with medication errors listed in order of percentage from greatest to least. At the bottom, our lawyers explain some of the nonobvious terms.
Rank | Associated Harm (Medication Error Type) | Percentage of Operations |
---|---|---|
1 | Untreated postoperative pain >4/10 | 18.9% |
2 | Other | 13.0% |
3 | Potential for bacterial contamination due to expired medication syringes | 8.3% |
4 | Prolonged hemodynamic swings | 7.6% |
5 | Medication documentation errors | 7.6% |
6 | Syringe swaps | 5.8% |
7 | Residual neuromuscular blockade | 2.9% |
8 | Presumed hypotension with inability to obtain a blood pressure reading | 2.2% |
9 | Oxygen saturation <90% due to ME | 1.8% |
10 | Delayed or missed required perioperative antibiotic | 1.4% |
11 | Delayed emergence | 1.1% |
12 | Untreated bradycardia <40 beats/min | 1.1% |
13 | Untreated new onset intraoperative cardiac arrhythmia | 0.72% |
Explanations:
- Untreated postoperative pain >4/10: Pain after surgery that is greater than 4 out of 10 on a pain scale, where 10 is the most pain imaginable, and 0 is no pain. If not treated, it indicates an error.
- Potential for bacterial contamination due to expired medication syringes: Using expired syringes for medications can increase the risk of bacterial contamination, leading to infections.
- Prolonged hemodynamic swings: Hemodynamics refers to blood flow within the body. Prolonged swings mean long-lasting or dramatic changes in blood pressure, heart rate, or blood flow.
- Residual neuromuscular blockade: After certain surgeries, drugs are used to relax the muscles (neuromuscular blocking agents). Residual means some effects of this drug remain, possibly causing weakness or breathing difficulties.
- Presumed hypotension with inability to obtain a blood pressure reading: Hypotension means low blood pressure. This refers to instances where a blood pressure reading couldn’t be obtained, but low blood pressure is suspected.
- Oxygen saturation <90% due to ME: Oxygen saturation is the blood oxygen percentage. Normal levels are typically 95-100%. If it falls below 90% because of a medication error, it indicates a lack of oxygen delivered to the body’s tissues.
- Delayed emergence: This refers to patients taking longer than expected to wake up after anesthesia.
- Untreated bradycardia <40 beats/min: Bradycardia is a slower-than-normal heart rate. A rate below 40 beats per minute is slow and may require medical intervention.
- Untreated new onset intraoperative cardiac arrhythmia: Cardiac arrhythmia means an irregular heartbeat. If this starts during surgery (intraoperative) and isn’t treated, it can be dangerous.
What Are My Chances of Winning a Medication Error Malpractice Case?
Medication error cases have a slightly higher success rate than general medical malpractice cases. Over 90% of medication error cases result in an out-of-court settlement, and less than 10% go to trial. For those that go to trial, plaintiffs win about 35% of the time.
Many of these losses at trial for victims are not because they cannot prove a medication or pharmacy error but because they cannot prove the harm that was done came from that medication mistake. Still, this is about 15% better than the winning percentage at trial for plaintiffs in general medical malpractice cases.
Can I Sue My Pharmacy for Giving Me the Wrong Prescription?
Yes, but only if you were physically harmed by the mistake. Pharmacies can be sued for malpractice, just like doctors and hospitals. The most common type of medication error claims against pharmacies involves filling a prescription with the wrong medication or the wrong dosage.
But, as our lawyers have been underscoring throughout this page, you must show that you were hurt by the mistake of having a valid malpractice claim against a pharmacy for a prescription filling error. You need to show that the wrong prescription you received or failure to get the correct prescription was harmful.
What Is the Highest Settlement or Verdict Your Law Firm Has Obtained in a Medication Error Case?
The highest verdict our law firm has obtained for a client in a medication error case was $10 million. In that case, the doctor simply chose the wrong medication for the patient in light of his condition, and it caused his death.
Getting a Lawyer
If you have a prescription error case, call our medication error lawyers at 800-553-8082 or click here for a free Internet consultation. Our firm focuses on claims in the Baltimore-Washington area but handles catastrophic injury and wrongful death medical error lawsuits nationwide.
More Resources for Medication Error Lawsuits
- Pharmacy Error Malpractice Claims
- CVS Pharmacy Claims
- Rite Aid Pharmacy Errors
- Walgreens Pharmacy Errors
- Nursing Home Medicinal Abuse: a pandemic problem in nursing homes in the U.S. today that no one really talks about
- Anesthesia Overdose Cases