Medication Errors: What They Are, How They Happen, and How to Prevent Them

When you take a pill, get an injection, or fill a prescription, you expect it to be safe. But medication errors, mistakes in prescribing, dispensing, or taking drugs that can lead to harm. Also known as drug mistakes, they happen more often than hospitals or pharmacies admit—and many are avoidable. These aren’t just rare accidents. They include giving the wrong dose, mixing up similar-sounding drugs like hydroxyzine and hydralazine, or missing critical allergies. The result? Emergency visits, organ damage, or worse.

Prescription errors, mistakes made by doctors when writing or ordering medications are a major source of the problem. A doctor might write a dose too high, forget to check for interactions, or pick a drug that’s unsafe for someone with kidney disease. Then comes pharmacy errors, mistakes made when filling prescriptions—wrong label, wrong pill, wrong patient. Even if the prescription is perfect, the system can still break down. And patients? They might take the wrong pill because the bottle looks similar, skip doses because the schedule is confusing, or double up because they didn’t understand the instructions.

It’s not just about the drugs. It’s about how they’re handled at every step. Older adults, people on five or more medications, and those with poor vision or low health literacy are at higher risk. But anyone can be affected—even if you’re young and healthy. A simple mix-up between Levothyroxine and Levofloxacin can send someone to the ER. And these errors don’t always show up right away. Some cause long-term damage that’s hard to trace back to the original mistake.

What’s in this collection? Real stories and deep dives into cases where medication errors happened—and how they were caught, avoided, or corrected. You’ll find reviews of drugs like azathioprine that carry hidden clot risks, guides on how cholestyramine or atomoxetine can be misused if not monitored, and breakdowns of how common drugs like metformin or Advair Diskus can go wrong if dosed incorrectly. You’ll learn how to spot red flags in your own prescriptions, how to ask the right questions at the pharmacy, and how to keep a medication log that actually works. This isn’t about blaming doctors or pharmacists. It’s about giving you the tools to protect yourself in a system that’s far from perfect.