Pharmacy Errors Addressed In New Florida Law
Attorney
(866) 735-1102 Ext 415
Florida Governor Charlie Crist has just signed Senate Bill 1360 into law. The Pharmacy Technician Act is a significant piece of legislation that should keep us all safer from the medication errors made by pharmacy technicians.
SB1360 should bring some justice to the Hippely family. Back in the summer of 2002, Beth Hippely of Lakeland, Florida was undergoing treatment for breast cancer. She was taking chemotherapy and the blood thinner, Warfarin, also known as Coumadin.
The pharmacy tech at Walgreens gave her a refill order at ten times the dose for Warfarin. Three weeks on the medication and Beth suffered a massive cerebral hemorrhage. She went into a coma after suffering brain damage and then was put on life support. But because she could not take medication for cancer, her cancer returned. She died in January 2007.
A lawsuit in Polk County on behalf of the family against Walgreens for negligence and wrongful death resulted in a $25.8 million award for damages.
The new Pharmacy Technician Act should help prevent these kinds of pharmaceutical errors by inexperienced and unsupervised technicians.
It requires pharmacy technicians to register with the Florida Board of Pharmacy and to work directly under the supervision of a pharmacist. The tech must be at least 17 years old and they are required to complete 20 hours of continuing education in pharmaceutical procedures prior to a biennial renewal of their registration.
It will be against Florida law for anyone who is not registered as a pharmacy technician to perform that job.
With medication errors commonplace, the Pharmacy Technician Act is long overdue.
Data from the Florida Board of Pharmacy indicates about 600 complaints a year against pharmacies and just as many against individual pharmacists. Big pharmacy chains cut their costs to increase profitability and that includes the cost of labor. Pharmacy techs are a cheaper way to staff a pharmacy and keep profits up.
But it’s about more than profits. Beth Hippely lost her life from a preventable mistake.
Unfortunately, the new law will be phased in over the next few years. In the meantime, keep reading your prescription directions and make sure the amount and instructions reflect what you were told by your physician. #