Practitioners on the Defensive

In the article titled: “Current approaches to punitive action for medication errors by boards of pharmacy”, the authors point out that most boards of pharmacy invoke punitive action against pharmacists involved in medication errors. Most states do not have specific rules or regulations that stipulate errors as actual violations and most determinations are made on a case-by-case basis.

Questions we are asking are:

1. How many pharmacists are aware of this?
2. How many pharmacists know the rules for their state?
3. Do these rules apply to other healthcare professionals?
4. What obligation does the hospital or other healthcare institution have in doing everything possible to create a safe work environment?
5. If there is technology that would have prevented the error or minimized the potential for the error and it was not in place, does that responsibility then go to the hospital/institution?

A link to the article originally published on The National Center for Biotechnology Information site: Current approaches to punitive action for medication errors by boards of pharmacy.

Current approaches to punitive action for medication errors by boards of pharmacy. Holdsworth M, Wittstrom K, Yeitrakis T. Ann Pharmacother. 2013 Apr;47(4):475–81. doi: 10.1345/aph.1R668. Epub 2013 Apr 2.