A physician prescribed his lay Patient a medication that must be compounded. After consuming this medication, Patient suffered atypical serious side effects. After examination, a physician reckons that the end product may not match his prescription, and the Compounding Pharmacy may be negligent. Here is one real life example.
Incorrect dispensing. A key consideration is a pharmacy dispensing error. In Australia, a number of cases were reported in 2018 and 2019 where 1% atropine was dispensed to children where 0.01% atropine had been prescribed. In response, Optometry Australia recommended that atropine prescriptions include the specific note 'MUST BE COMPOUNDED' to avoid this dispensing error.
But Pharmacy denies any wrongdoing, and insists that it dispensed the correct medication.
Question
How can Patient get his compounded medication audited and inspected, to determine if the pharmacy dispensed exactly what the doctor ordered? Would Patient submit a sample of this medication to a laboratory? What kind of laboratories can assist Patient?
For example, presuppose a physician prescribed 0.01% Atropine. Then Pharmacy labelled the end product 0.01% Atropine. But it's impossible to distinguish 0.01% from 0.02%, 0.05%, etc. Atropine by eye. How can Patient determine if pharmacy truly dispensed 0.01% Atropine, or negligently dispensed some other wrong concentration?
