Pharmacist Errors Rising, Outlook Negative as Shortage Worsens

The national pharmacist shortage is likely exacerbating the growing problem of medication errors, the Detroit News reports. According to an HHS survey, prescription errors by physicians and pharmacists could cause up to 7,000 deaths per year, up from 2,900 in 1983. In Michigan, formal allegations of pharmacist negligence or incompetence rose from 81 five years ago to 114 in 1999-2000. Doug Miller, chairman of the Michigan Board of Pharmacy, said that about 200 errors are reported to the agency each year, a figure probably much lower than the actual number of prescription-related errors because Michigan, like other states, does not require pharmacists to report mistakes. He estimated that 1% to 2% of prescriptions involve "potentially serious errors, those that might cause patient harm." The Detroit News reports that pharmacists say their jobs have become more pressured in recent years: Three billion prescriptions were written in the United States last year, up from 2.5 billion in 1996, and the number is estimated to rise to 4 billion by 2004. Moreover, in the past five years, 242 new drugs have come on the market, some with confusingly similar names, such as Xanax and Zantac. Miller and other experts are calling for more education, focusing on understanding why errors occur in the system instead of trying to cover up the errors or punishing pharmacists for reporting individual mistakes. He added, "Errors are highly unreported, and we're part of what drives them underground because we're threatening to take people's licenses away" (Lewis, Detroit News, 2/15).