Settle for Nothing Less than the Best

Treating a patient with medicine is a process that involves much more than prescribing a certain type of drug. 

Errors can occur at any stage in the treatment process, including:

Manufacturing the drug: There are situations in which the doctor or pharmacists do everything right, but the drug itself is dangerous. It may have been manufactured with a defect or contaminated in some way.

Selecting the medication: Choosing the correct medication is crucial. Errors could involve selecting the wrong medication for the treatment, choosing one known to have dangerous side effects, prescribing a bad "combination" that results in an adverse reaction or failing to consider the patient's history to determine if a drug is unsafe on an individual basis.

Selecting the dosage: Choosing the right amount of the right medication to be taken on the right schedule is equally important in the treatment process. Too little can be ineffective and too much could result in overdose.

Writing the prescription: A prescribing doctor can make mistakes when writing the prescription itself, including illegible handwriting. If a pharmacist can't read the doctor's writing, it can lead to filling the prescription with the wrong dosage or incorrect drug.

Filling the prescription: A prescription could be labeled incorrectly, put in the wrong container or filled in some way that does not correspond to the recommendation from the prescribing physician.

Monitoring use of the medication: A doctor's job is not over when he or she writes a prescription. Medical professionals can cause harm if they fail to observe a patient in their care or fail to change the course of treatment when necessary.