The California State Board of Pharmacy has found that pharmacies across California make about 5 million errors a year. Officials at the regulatory board say they can only estimate the number of mistakes because pharmacies are not required to report them.
Dr. Melissa Kimura, president-elect of the California Pharmacists Association, joined KNX In Depth to answer a simple question about this complex topic - Why so many errors?
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Dr. Kimura said, "As a pharmacist, obviously, our priority is patient care and safety," but she emphasized that because there is currently no requirement to report mistakes and no database of errors, the board's estimate "May not be the most accurate."
That said, Dr. Kimura believes most of the mistakes come from the "final verification stage" due to poor working conditions, understaffing, and "Corporate pressures to fill prescriptions quickly, which are highly prevalent in large chain pharmacy settings."
Dr. Kimura said there is a bill, AB1286, seeking to make reporting medication errors to the state board mandatory so that accurate data is published on how often these errors occur.
Until that bill (hopefully) passes, she suggests people advocate for themselves and double-check their medications every time they pick up a prescription. Dr. Kimura also suggests finding a pharmacy that is well staffed and maybe avoid some of those chain pharmacies.
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