What to expect and do after a pharmacy mistake

When your doctor prescribes a medication, you have every reason to believe that the information will be relayed to your pharmacy without incident.

From there, you also hope that the right medication is provided to you. After all, you're relying on this to help improve a health condition.

If you're given the wrong medication or the wrong dose, it's possible that your situation could soon worsen.

It's important that you understand what to expect and what to do after a pharmacy mistake. You should expect the staff to do all of the following:

• Find time to speak with you about what went wrong
• Treat you with respect, as you've been put in a very bad position
• Acknowledge that something went wrong and make it clear that they are going to do whatever it takes to fix the problem
• Advise you to seek medical assistance to ensure that the mistake did not impact you
• Investigate internal processes to understand what happened
• Answer all your questions, no matter what they may be

While you should expect these things from your pharmacy, it's important to note that your health is the only thing that matters at this point. For this reason, you need to immediately tell your doctor what happened as to implement a plan of action.

Once you have everything in order, you can turn your attention to the future. Depending on the circumstances, such as if the mistake has caused additional harm, you may want to learn more about your legal rights. If nothing else, it's a good idea to consider all potential action.

Source: Consumer Med Safety, "What to expect when a pharmacy makes a mistake," accessed April 26, 2018