Prescription Errors: What They Are, How They Happen, and How to Stop Them

When a doctor writes a prescription, a pharmacist fills it, or you take a pill wrong—prescription errors, mistakes in prescribing, dispensing, or taking medications that can cause harm. Also known as medication errors, these aren’t just slips—they’re preventable events that send over 1.5 million people to the ER every year in the U.S. alone. These aren’t rare accidents. They happen because of handwriting that’s hard to read, similar drug names like hydroxyzine and hydralazine, or when a patient doesn’t tell their doctor they’re taking Danshen, an herbal supplement that dangerously boosts bleeding risk with blood thinners. Or when someone combines SSRIs, common antidepressants like sertraline with NSAIDs, painkillers like ibuprofen and doesn’t realize it raises their chance of stomach bleeding by 75%.

Prescription errors don’t just happen in clinics. They happen at home, too. Maybe you forgot to mention you’re on warfarin, a blood thinner that reacts badly with many foods, herbs, and other drugs, and your new doctor prescribes something that clashes with it. Or you pick up a generic version of a drug, assume it’s identical, and don’t check the active ingredients. That’s how people end up taking Aceclofenac, an NSAID used for sports injuries while already on another painkiller, risking kidney damage. These mistakes are often silent—no one notices until you’re dizzy, bleeding, or in the hospital.

But here’s the good part: most of these errors are avoidable. You don’t need to be a medical expert to protect yourself. Just ask questions. Know what you’re taking. Keep a simple list of all your meds, including supplements like vinpocetine, a supplement some take for sleep or cognition, and bring it to every appointment. If a pharmacist says something sounds off, speak up. If your new prescription looks different from your old one, double-check. These aren’t just safety tips—they’re your best defense. Below, you’ll find real stories and science-backed guides on how common drug interactions, pharmacy mix-ups, and patient oversights lead to harm—and how to stop them before they start.