Blog Topic

Rush for Profits Causes Prescription Errors
February 15, 2008

According to USA Today, greedy corporate policies, like encouraging or forcing pharmacists to fill out more prescriptions and offering incentives and bonuses for fast work, are contributing to an increase in the number of pharmacy errors that are taking place. A 2003 study in fact, pegged the odds of getting a prescription with a serious life threatening error filled at 1 in a 1000. Those are high numbers when you consider the number of prescriptions filled every day in this country.

A 2004 case highlighted the dangers of prescription errors and the fact that drugstore companies are creating ideal conditions for more errors to take place through their work policies. Five-year-old Trey Green who was prescribed Inderal to control his hand tremors, was instead given a steroid, Methitest, that is given to older males whose bodies aren't producing enough testosterone. Not only that, it was filled a total of 4 times, and little Trey ended up receiving double the recommended adult dosage of the steroid. The result? He went into premature puberty and began to display rages. The prescription was filled at Walgreens', one of the largest drug stores in the US, and the shocking fact of the matter is that when Trey's parents contacted their doctor to complain that his medicine wasn't helping their child, he increased the dosage. Unbelievably enough, Walgreens' made another mistake with this prescription too. Trey's parents sued Walgreens. The Jones' have no idea of the extent of the damage to their son's health. They will only learn as he gets older. His height could be compromised as a result of the steroid use, and some form of liver damage is a possibility, doctors say.

This wasn't the only horror story emerging from prescription errors. In 2001, 16-day-old Benjamin Goldberg was prescribed up to 5 times the recommended amount at a CVS pharmacy. When his father complained to the state pharmacy board, they found that the pharmacist who had filled Benjamin's prescription had filled a total of 400 prescriptions on that particular day. This kind of pushing the employees to fill more prescriptions, experts say, is what's causing these increasing and serious errors.

According to a USA Today study, which lays bare the frightening facts, staff at Walgreens and CVS work on a schedule that seems to stress speed in filling prescriptions rather than accuracy. The average time for a Walgreen prescription to be filled is a mere 2 minutes. The pharmacist is expected to get the medicine, dosage and instructions right in these two minutes. It's not hard to see where the errors are coming form.

Pharmacists themselves say that the pressure to rush towards filling prescriptions is huge. It's not uncommon, they say, to have 100 prescriptions waiting to be filled at the start of the day. What makes matters worse is that there are no regulatory guidelines that say a particular volume of prescriptions is too much, so the likes of Walgreens and CVS are free to set any target they want.

The US spends the equivalent of the GDP of a few dozen countries on its healthcare system, yet ranks among the lowest among industrialized nations in the quality of healthcare given to citizens. Whatever else we agree or disagree on, we universally agree that our health care system is a national embarrassment. The insurance companies fill their coffers, while millions are denied access to health care, and doctors push medicines and medical devices for profit. These prescription errors are just another example of the disregard to public health by companies who put profits ahead of safety.

If you have suffered adverse side effects from dangerous or incorrectly prescribed drugs, you need the help of a top California personal injury lawyer. Contact the attorneys at The Reeves Law Group for a free consultation.

Permalink

Subpoenas Issued against Prodisc Company
February 07, 2008

The New York Times reports that the New Jersey Attorney's Office has issued subpoenas to two companies, the Swiss medical technology group Synthes and Viscogliosi Brothers, a New York based investment group. The subpoenas are related to the ties that researchers and surgeons who approved the use of Prodisc had with the financial success of the product.

Prodisc is an artificial spinal disc that's especially indicated in cases of spinal arthoplasty in patients who have degenerative disc disease and who have no relief from pain medication for at least 6 months prior.

When the findings of the research conducted into its benefits was made public in 2006, doctors like Jack E. Zigler were effusive in their praise for the artificial disc, claiming it gave patients a new found mobility, and that it was "gratifying" to watch patients return to some semblance of their normal life after the insertion of the disc.

As it turns out, all that "gratification" might have been heightened by the lure of greenbacks - doctors at at least half of the 17 research centers involved in the study had invested in the product, it was later revealed. While doctors promoting a product or device with some expectation of rewards is not that uncommon, this case is strikingly different because the doctors here were supposed to be impartial and objective observers studying the benefits of a new product. It doesn't take a PhD to figure out that when researchers have a financial stake in the object of their study, the conclusions might mirror their own financial ambitions rather than the actual benefits of the product.

This is exactly what seems to have happened in the Prodisc case. Later investigations revealed that data from a disproportionately high number of subjects was ignored or left out of the conclusions. As many as 21 subjects or 10 percent of the total number of subjects were left out of the conclusions. Medical research experts say 10 percent is an unusually high number of people to be excluded from the results.

Many of these subjects, it now turns out, did not do well with the artificial disc at all. One patient, Calvin Timberlake, had the disc implanted after it got FDA approval. The disc came apart right after implantation, necessitating another surgery. He has filed a lawsuit against Synthes.

The influence of commercial and financial interests is so prevalent in the spinal surgery field that a bunch of doctors have grouped together to form the Association for Ethics in Spine Surgery. They see relations between the spinal surgeons and the device industry getting progressively friendlier, and fear that doctors seem to be swayed by profits and shareholder prices, rather than the medical efficacy of the device.

The FDA allows doctors to have a financial stake in the devices they are studying as long as these relationships are fully disclosed. As of now, it's still not clear if all details of these financial ties in the Prodisc case were revealed to the FDA.

If you have been injured by a defective medical product, then you need the help of an experienced California personal injury law firm. Contact a lawyer at The Reeves Law Group for a free consultation.

Permalink