Rite Aid Pharmacy Not Responsible for Prescription in Case

Story first appeared in Reuters.
An upstate New York woman who had a stroke after she took the wrong dosage of a medication has lost a bid to hold her pharmacy liable.

In a unanimous decision released Thursday, the Appellate Division, Third Department, held that a Rite Aid in Cobleskill did not have a duty to warn the patient or contact her physician after she was prescribed a lower-than-normal dosage of Coumadin, a drug designed to prevent blood clots.

To fulfill the duty which the plaintiff requests is to require the pharmacist to interject himself into the doctor-patient relationship and practice medicine without a license.

The patient suffered a stroke in 2008. In 2010 she sued her doctor and the pharmacy for negligence. She claimed that the doctor prescribed an "inadequate" dosage of Coumadin, according to the court, which led to her having the stroke soon after. Rite Aid, she alleged, should have contacted the doctor before filling the prescription.

Last year, a state Supreme Court Justice of Albany County denied a pre-discovery motion by Rite Aid to dismiss the claims against it. He  ruled that a trial should be held to address potential questions of fact.

While pharmacists may be found negligent for prescribing dosages that fall below or exceed medically-acceptable levels, they are not required -- or qualified -- to monitor each patient's unique medical condition, the court held. The panel also found that a pharmacist's chief duty is to fill prescriptions as written by physicians, and that the pharmacy met that obligation.

In reaching this conclusion, the courts do not suggest that a pharmacy is no more than a warehouse for drugs. However, it is recognized that a pharmacist's professional judgment must defer to the prescribing physician's training, experience and knowledge of the particular patient's condition, stated New York Medical Negligence Lawyers.


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