Generally, the form of medical negligence known to most involves a physician, surgeon, or other doctor directly administering a service. Commonly known as medical malpractice, this generally involves a doctor having been negligent in actually delivering services to the patient, such as administering a surgery or misdiagnosing. However, medical negligence can also take place in the pharmacy and at home, once the patient has left the office of his or her doctor. Prescription error takes place when there is an error somewhere between the writing of a prescription and a pharmacy fulfilling that prescription. For some reason, either the doctor or the pharmacist has made an error, causing the medicine that the patient receives to be wrong. The most common prescription errors include the wrong drug being made, the wrong dosage being given, incorrect directions, mismatching names with medicines, or improper combinations. These prescriptions errors can result from bad handwriting, similar sounding medicines, or simple oversights. The results of these errors can be deadly.