Pharmacist License Defense Lawyer in Louisiana
The License to operate a pharmacy in New Orleans, Louisiana is issued by the Louisiana Board of Pharmacy. The board is authorized to regulate the practice of pharmacy in the wider health and safety interests of its citizens. The Louisiana Board of Pharmacy is tasked with meeting two broad objectives. These include: 1)First to ensure that the applicants applying for the license meet the minimum standard of education and training required to practice safely. 2)Second, to ensure that all licensees are complying with the governing laws. The ultimate goal is to ensure that all licensed pharmacists demonstrate a level of responsibility and reliability and a duty of care when dealing with patients. Any pharmacist who fails to comply with these standards risks having their license suspended or revoked. If you are facing issues with the Board regarding your pharmacist license, you should contact a pharmacist license defense lawyer as soon as possible.
Pharmacy Errors and Why The Board Needs to Regulate
In spite of making every effort to induct the most qualified and experienced pharmacists and implementing programs to avoid errors, the fact is that pharmacy errors do occur and quite frequently. According to statistics put together by the National Association of Boards of Pharmacy, NABP, more than 7000 deaths occur each year due to incorrect prescriptions, and over 2.2 million dispensing errors are reported each year. As a result of these errors, nearly 1.5 million people experience sickness or injury each year. The cost of adverse drug events (ADEs) that are preventable cost the US nearly 2 billion dollars each year.
Contrary to popular belief, dispensing errors are not just a malfunction of your pharmacist’s training or negligence. According to a study of the International Journal for Quality in Healthcare, there are sociotechnical factors responsible. The margin of error can increase simply because of the way pharmacies are designed, whether you are picking your prescription from a drive-through window or an automated dispensing system. The point is that errors by pharmacists do happen. If they are genuine mistakes that the pharmacist can explain in case of resultant harm to a patient, the Louisiana Board of Pharmacy can consider the circumstances. However, if the error is due to pure negligence or actual intent to cause harm, the pharmacist can have their license suspended or revoked. Talk to a pharmacist license defense lawyer for more information about this.
Common Pharmacist Errors That Could Result in a Complaint
While there is no doubt that medical errors can occur, the fact is that when the Board issues a license, they do so to applicants who have proven to have the necessary knowledge, skills, and training to perform well in the field of pharmacy. However, there are always exceptions, and there may be some pharmacists who fail to live up to the standards that the Board expects them to meet. These pharmacists could make errors that could end up harming a patient. Some of these common errors include:
- Correct Medicine, Wrong Dose: A correct medicine dispensed in the wrong dosage can mean the difference between health and long-term morbidity or even life and death. This usually happens when the pharmacist or technician misunderstand the dosing unit or make mistakes when preparing the medicine. If the patient suffers harm because of this error, the pharmacist can be questioned, and if negligence is proven, they can be held accountable for their actions.
- Correct Prescription, Wrong Medicine: This happens when a pharmacist dispenses a different medicine altogether than what was prescribed by the doctor. The reasons could range from personal carelessness to poor pharmacy practices to genuine errors in labels and abbreviations. Again, if the error is genuine, the Board can consider the circumstances, but if negligence is the key player, the pharmacists can lose their license.
- Drug names that look or sound alike: This happens more often than we think possible. Many drugs that sound similar to other drugs or are spelled almost the same way. The Institute for Safe Medication Practices (ISMP) has created a list of drugs that are frequently confused together to help pharmacists avoid those errors. For example, Acetazolamide with Acetohexamide, Aciphex with Aricept and Adderall with Inderal. However, some pharmacists still turn out to be careless and can often give the wrong drug because of the similarity in their names. Again, it is up to the Board to determine if the mistake is genuine or if the pharmacist was careless.
- When physicians and pharmacists fail to communicate: When in doubt, pharmacists are encouraged to contact the doctor to confirm names, abbreviations, history of allergy and history of other medicines. Failure to observe due process can result in adverse drug interactions or reactions that are entirely preventable. It often happens that pharmacists think they know as much as (if not more) then the prescribing doctor. With this attitude, the pharmacist can often make mistakes and can harm a patient. If this happens and if the error is reported to the Board, the Board can take action against the pharmacist.
- On spot patient counseling: Pharmacists are required to counsel their customers on the prescription both as a matter of law and best practice. Pharmacists should take the time to explain the safe consumption of medications, to avoid taking the drugs in combination with other drugs not approved by their doctors and find out about any patient allergies. This should be a usual practice, but many pharmacists do not give patients the time it takes to explain and simply hand over the medications to them. If this lack of attention results in the patient consuming the wrong dose or taking medicine the wrong way, the patient can suffer bodily harm. The Board can hold the pharmacist accountable for this.
If you have received notification from the Board that a complaint has been received and that the Board is investigating that complaint against you, you should contact a pharmacist license defense lawyer immediately.
What to do as a consumer to alleviate pharmacy errors?
As a consumer take all necessary precautions to avoid falling victim to a pharmacist’s negligence. There are many steps you can take to protect yourself and help the pharmacist.
- When the doctor hands you that prescription, do not hesitate to ask your doctor if you are not able to read it clearly. Confirm the name, spelling, and dose of the medicine. Make a copy of the prescription or take a note that can be used to double check the dispensed medicine.
- Try to choose a pharmacy that is credible with a good professional reputation. You can look up a pharmacy on the state pharmacy board. Do not trade speed or cost with safety. If your pharmacy is low on staff and two people are doing everything, the chances of human error can increase exponentially.
- Check the medicines you get from the pharmacy. Make sure that the bag contains what it says. Learn to read the labels and dosages and confirm that you are taking the right medicine at the right dose.
- Keep a copy of the prescription and medicines you get. This will be useful if you need to complain about a pharmacy’s error or negligence.
What Happens if a Pharmacist Makes an Error
If there is an error, the consequences are pretty much dependent on how seriously the patient has been impacted by the error. If they have been seriously harmed by an error or in severe cases, have experienced death or disability of a loved one, the patient or their family members can do a number of things to initiate action against the pharmacy.
- File a complaint against the state’s pharmacy board. The Louisiana Board of Pharmacy has an established system to lodge complaints using their complaint form.
- Hire a lawyer and file a lawsuit against the pharmacist.
They may collect as much evidence in the form of receipts, prescription slips, doctor’s bills, and hospital-related documents and death certificates, if any, to strengthen their case. Keep in mind that just because they claim that it was the pharmacist’s error that caused them harm does not make this claim true. It is an allegation and like every other allegation needs to be proved before it is considered to be authentic. The Board may investigate a complaint filed against a licensed pharmacist, but the pharmacist has the right to defend themselves. They can provide proof that they did not make the error or that it was a genuine mistake and not something that was the result of negligence or carelessness. Whatever the case may be, it is important to hire a pharmacist license defense lawyer so that they can help you protect your professional license.
What do to if you face suspension of your license as a pharmacist?
To err is human and there is a difference between honest mistakes and gross negligence or misconduct. As a practicing pharmacist, it is likely that you will make mistakes, big and small, affecting the health and safety of your customers. Depending on the magnitude of error you can get a verbal or formal written warning, temporary suspension or a complete and permanent suspension of your professional license.
Anyone can lodge a case against you including customers, physicians, employers and even disgruntled colleagues. Whether the complaint has been lodged with your state’s pharmacy board or a formal lawsuit has been filed, you will be notified to and required to provide an explanation. Experience shows that pharmacists trying to settle things directly with complainants or the pharmacy board do not fare very well. Everything stated in these meetings without legal assistance are usually used against the defendants. That is why you must ensure you have a pharmacist license defense attorney by your side to help you defend your right to practice.
Hiring a pharmacist license defense lawyer early on in the process will help you streamline the process by adherence to various timelines. For example, you must request a hearing as part of your right to due process within 21 days after the issuance of an administrative complaint. If you do not request this hearing within the deadline, you are implying a waiver of your right to a hearing. Also, with the help of a pharmacist license defense attorney, you are more likely to resolve the case against you when it is still at the stage of the investigation. This way this complaint, after resolution, will not get reported on your professional record.
However, a delay at the investigation stage means that formal disciplinary action will be initiated against you. This will get reported on your professional record, regardless of its successful resolution. In short, if you want to ensure your pharmacist license is not put at risk, you should speak to a pharmacist license defense lawyer as soon as you become aware that a complaint has been filed against you.
Why is the investigation stage of the complaint process so important?
Usually, when a formal complaint is lodged, the state board of pharmacy will initiate an investigation to assess if there is adequate evidence to warrant a formal complaint process. If the evidence is not adequate to suggest that a violation of the law has occurred, the complaint will be dropped. In such a case, you do not need to worry about your license being suspended or revoked.
However, if there is evidence to suggest that violations have occurred, the state’s board of pharmacy will initiate an administrative complaint. You need to request a hearing within 21 days or else the pharmacy board is authorized to take final action as per the case. It is important that you hire a pharmacist license defense attorney to present your argument to the Board.
The board of pharmacy may determine that you have, in fact, not taken due care in the discharge of your duties and have endangered the health and safety of your patients. It might be that you are found to have committed fraud, some other gross misconduct and/or abused controlled substances. This can result in suspension of your license for varying periods of time. In some extreme cases, your license may be suspended with immediate effect, referred to as an emergency suspension. There are many possible outcomes, but every outcome is dependent on the evidence that is presented to the Board. If your pharmacy license defense lawyer has the supporting arguments that could help save your license, then you have nothing to worry about. But if the Board has the evidence to prove that you were indeed negligent, you will have to face the consequences. It is generally a good idea to do your work to the best of your ability and to try your best to live up to the standards set by the Board.
Your options when facing a suspended license to practice
Regardless of what you plan on doing, seeking the services of a pharmacist license defense attorney is the best way to weigh your options and choose one that helps you clear your professional record and help you get your license reinstated. With legal assistance from a pharmacist license defense lawyer, you may be able to control the damage by arriving at a settlement that allows you to seek relicensing in another state.
In some case, however, your only option may be not taking any action and surrendering your license. This is when the offender is aware of the violation and does not want to be investigated further. Even if the last option is chosen, it should be done with the help of a pharmacist license defense lawyer to make sure the harm is reduced to the extent possible. Simply surrendering your license in one state does not guarantee that you can start practice in another state.
Retain an Experienced Pharmacist License Defense Lawyer
At the Bart Bernard Law Firm, we understand that every pharmacist works very hard to acquire their license. It is not as if they woke up one day, dropped their resume and became a pharmacist. Years of studying is involved, practical training is needed, and significant effort is made to get a professional license to practice in the State of Louisiana. No pharmacist wants to see their license taken away from them. If a complaint is filed against you, you should know that there are ways to defend your right to practice. Talk to our pharmacist license defense lawyer to find out what possible options you have and what would be the best course of action in your particular situation. Everybody makes errors. Just because an error was made does not mean that the pharmacist intended to cause harm to the patient. There are always two sides to a story, and we are here to present your side to the Board. Call us today and schedule a consultation with our pharmacist license defense lawyer. We are here to help you get through this challenging time in your career. We understand the importance of your license, and we understand how you would want to ensure your career is not put on the line because of a simple mistake. Let us help you. Call an experienced pharmacist license defense lawyer now.