Clerical pharmaceutical error is not medical malpractice

In a per curium opinion in Crozier v. Henry Ford Hospital, the Court of Appeals held on December 11 that the mistaken substitution of 5 mg of a drug for the prescribed .5 mg is ordinary negligence and not subject to the medical malpractice reforms.  Crozier had received a liver transplant in 2005, and was mistakenly administered ten times the proper dosage by a hospital-system pharmacist.  The Defendant argued that the claim was a malpractice claim and could not be pursued under ordinary negligence rules.  The trial court agreed and dismissed it.  The Court of Appeals relied upon the Bryant and Kuznar cases in concluding that since this case involved no exercise of "medical judgment", and was merely a clerical error, it cannot be a malpractice claim.  The Court held that this type of case must be distinguished from cases where the wrong generic medication is administered, or an error has resulted from allegedly poor professional judgment.