DON’T BECOME A CLAIM STATISTIC - PHARMACY MALPRACTICE CASES (NOT LAW CE)

The critical first step in the process of protecting patients and reducing healthcare organizations’ liability exposures is to learn about the risks that confront today’s pharmacists. Using real malpractice cases in which pharmacists have been named as defendants in a law suit the presentation will highlight the types of situations most likely to have serious adverse consequences for patients and create liability exposures for pharmacists and the organizations that employ them. The information in this presentation will provide healthcare professionals with the knowledge needed to help reduce their liability risks while improving patient or client outcomes; pharmacists can examine their organization’s current practices in relation to the allegations of malpractice in relation to claims experienced by their peers. In addition, healthcare organization leaders can use this information to direct their risk management efforts toward areas of demonstrated errors and lawsuit claims, in order to develop risk management programs that reduce the number of malpractice claims made against pharmacists. This presentation focuses on identifying the injuries and adverse outcomes most commonly associated with dispensing error claims, as well as the underlying causes of pharmacist error, including employee behaviors that contribute to errors. Implementing the high-level risk management recommendations presented during this program can enhance medication safety and minimize the likelihood of patient injuries, and pharmacists’ liability exposures.

Learning Objectives
Upon completion of this activity, the participant should be able to:

Discuss the impact of medication errors on patient safety and malpractice claims

Describe the 3 types of behaviors; human error, at-risk behavior and reckless behavior as it applies to medication errors involved in law suits

List the contributing factors that led to medication error allegations made against pharmacists in malpractice lawsuits

Identify key risk management items that healthcare organizations can incorporate into their practice