Wrong drug and wrong dose dispensing errors identified in pharmacist professional liability claims.

Area of Science:

• Pharmacy practice
• Medication safety
• Legal claims analysis

Background:

• Pharmacist professional liability claims are a significant concern in healthcare.
• Wrong drug and wrong dose dispensing errors are common allegations in legal claims against pharmacists.

Purpose of the Study:

• To identify patterns and trends in pharmacist professional liability claims.
• To analyze the most common allegations: wrong drug dispensing errors and wrong dose dispensing errors.

Main Methods:

• Analysis of pharmacist professional liability claim data from 2012-2016, closed between 2012 and 2016.
• Classification of claims by license type, allegation, and payment.
• Comparison of 2018 claims data with a 2013 dataset to identify trends.

Main Results:

• Wrong drug dispensing errors accounted for 36.8% of claims, and wrong dose errors for 15.3% in the 2018 dataset.
• Claims for wrong drug dispensing errors decreased from 43.8% (2013) to 36.8% (2018).
• Claims for wrong dose dispensing errors decreased from 31.5% (2013) to 15.3% (2018).

Conclusions:

• While technology has improved medication error prevention, dispensing errors persist.
• System and human factors remain significant contributors to wrong drug and wrong dose dispensing errors.