When your doctor makes a mistake

Whether I would be nervous or not would depend entirely on what the medication is and why I'm taking it.

How did you know it was wrong? Did she tell you the right one but sent an order for something else? Although concerning, that wouldn't give me anxiety because I'd know at the office what I was supposed to be taking, how much, and why. As long as the correct thing was discussed in the office, a one-time error from a normally competent Dr would be forgivable to me. I'd assume there was an error with the electronic entry, such as clicking on the wrong med in a field of search results.

Did you discuss the reasons for taking the (correct) medication, and possible side effects? You can check that with the pharmacist and see if what you were told matches the drug you were given.

Are you just nervous because of the first error? That's understandable, but if you have the right thing now there's no real reason to worry.if it's that alarming to you and the pharmacist can't help allay your fears, call Monday and speak to your doctor about your concerns. Hopefully it scared her enough to slow down a bit when ordering.

@devildog, anxiety is such a pain. I, along with several real life friends have said they get it at the strangest times. I wonder if it is related to middle aged hormones.

Celebrate you caught the mistake!!! This is isn't the one to worry about. Although, this might not be reassuring for future medications - Sorry 😐

While I am sure you are stressed about the mistake, its one mistake that you, thankfully, caught. If mistakes were happening all the time then I would worry. But just once? No, I would not leave the practice of a Dr I have had great experiences with over one mistake. Its hard to find a dr that is good and thorough.

It's hard to receive care from a doc you can't trust. You're literally putting your life in their hands!

Our family GP misdiagnosed my dad's heart attack. He was on his way home from the office and turned around to go straight to the ER. He was having a massive MI. Then, he misdiagnosed his cancer. When he got a second opinion, he was already stage 4. Needless to say, we don't see that physician anymore.

Ultimately, we are personally responsible for our medical care. I take two meds with similar names and there have been errors on the part of the doc's office and on the pharmacy - it's been a necessary pain to deal with. I check every single medicine I get, even the obvious ones for antibiotics for a sinus infection, labeled on the pill packet you punch out.

If you like her, I'd schedule an appt. to talk face to face. Ease your anxiety. And pat yourself on your back that you listened well and then caught it. I am really impressed about that.

Have you talked to her yet? How I would feel and would proceed depend on how she responded.

I had an OB miscalculate my due date. I told him that the date he calculated could not be correct (he was off by weeks) and told him that at every appointment. He told me I was wrong. Because of the date he calculated, I could not go for a particular scan at a specialist until X date, because I had to be Y weeks along; I showed up for the scan, and it couldn't be performed, because sure enough, I was weeks farther along than the date he had calculated. When I brought this to his attention at the next appointment, together with the report from the high-risk specialists who were supposed to perform the scan, he raised his voice at me, deflected blame onto me, and still refused to acknowledge his own error.

That response was what sent up all the red flags for me. And caused me to switch doctors (new doctor switched the EDD to reflect both the date calculated by the specialist and the date I had calculated myself). The twins ended up totally fine, but there was no rebuilding the trust he first doctor had broken, and, since I had to make decisions at the end of my pregnancy about whether or not to induce, have a c-section, etc., I really needed to trust that my doctor was acting from a place of looking out for me, rather than in order to justify his own error. Had he apologized and accepted responsibility, things might have been different.

Not my doctor, but the pharmacy that we used.  I was picking up my son's thyroid medication.  We received the bag and paid for it at the pharmacy and left the store.  I was about half way home when my son asked to check what color the pills were this time.  This particular prescription was to be an increase in his thyroid medication and with each increase, the color of the pill changed.  He enjoyed knowing what color his new pill was going to be.

I handed him the bag from my purse and he took the bottle out.  He looked at the pills from the outside of the container and then turned it to look at the name on the bottle.  He said, "Mom, these pills are for some lady named Denise Somethingorother!"  I pulled over to the side of the road, and sure enough, this was NOT his prescription, it was for Xanex for this Denise woman.  

I turned around and went back to the pharmacy that was located at the back of the store. When I got to the counter, there was a woman ahead of us speaking to them and I overheard her getting a little irritated that her prescription was taking so long.  The lady asked what her name was and she said "Denise Somethingorother."  I stepped up to the counter immediately and told the girl what I had in the bag that was given to us.  They were mortified. The pharmacist came running out and asked if my son had taken any of the pills.  We assured her he had not (and he would not have done so, I usually handed his pill to him every morning) and that we realized the mistake on our drive home.

They were of course, very apologetic and kept saying they didn't know how such a thing could have happened.  Truly, for me, it was just a minor inconvenience because my son was never in any danger of taking the Xanax.  We continued to use the same pharmacy and just made it a habit to check the pills before stepping away from the counter.  That included opening them to let my son see the color when it was an increase in the medication.  In fact, I now check the bottles given to me when I pick up my pain meds at my pharmacy.  I've never had another error.  

Mistakes can happen, and as long as you didn't ingest the wrong medication, and have been happy with your doctor in the past, I would give her another chance. Perhaps she had gotten some terrible news that day and she was doing her best to see her patients for the remainder of the day. I don't think she will ever make a mistake like that again.

 

Actually I think it was lurkingsince2001 I meant to tag and not TankTop who hasn't posted here :embarrassed: I'm sorry for that mistake. Peaing while tired I guess

I agree.