Medication errors continue to occur at an alarming rate and impact all patient demographics. Usually, when the medication error occurs during an admission to a nursing home or hospital, the errors result from physicians prescribing the wrong medication or wrong dosage or a staff member at the facility making an error in the drug’s administration.
After discovery of a medication error that results in patient injury or death, it is important to trace the error to its source, as the laws that apply to different circumstances (physician or facility staff) may significantly impact the outcome.
When medication errors are made at a nursing home or hospital, we commonly find they originate in the following problems:
- Physicians failing to take complete medical histories of patients
- Physicians writing sloppy medication orders — failing to articulate how the drug is to be administered
- Failing to account for patient allergies
- Mislabeling medications
- Failing to note patient reaction to medications
Sometimes there may be multiple reasons why a medication error occurred. Rosenfeld Injury Lawyers will investigate all potential claims and will keep you advised of your potential legal rights. In order to begin the investigative process, please fill out our contact form or call our office to speak to a lawyer immediately.
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Particularly when dealing with children, hospitals and other medical facilities need to be keenly aware of the drugs and dosages they are dispensing. As a medical malpractice lawyer, I have worked on matters where slight variations in medication dosage have had catastrophic consequences for the child involved.
I was again reminded of the dangers faced by infants when medical facilities administer the incorrect medication dose when I saw a recent Chicago Sun Times article regarding a recently filed medical malpractice lawsuit against a Chicagoland hospital….
Some of the most tragic cases of nursing home negligence involve medication errors. Not just because the error results in a severe injury or death of a patient, but because the errors were indeed so needless. Somewhere along the line from the time the doctors order was written to the time the medication was dispensed— or perhaps not– we frequently see errors made with respect to how medications are handled in nursing homes. Even innocent errors made by nursing home staff can wreck havoc on fragile patients who require strict adherence to their doctors medication orders.
For some reason, there seems to be a caviler attitude amongst some nurse some staff when it comes to dispensing medication to patients. Perhaps it’s the brightly colored pills or the fact that many staff members have become so accustomed to seeing a large percentage of patients taking the same medications? Regardless of the underlying reasoning, staff must be as diligent in their approach to medication dispensation as they are with providing other types of medical care for patients….
A Minnesota nursing home has been cited by the state’s Department of Health after investigators determined that staff at the facility failed to provide prescription medication to a patient who was admitted to the facility for short-term rehabilitation.
The investigation was triggered in response to a complaint following the stroke-related death of an elderly woman who was admitted to Lakeshore, Inc. for short-term rehabilitation. The woman was admitted to the nursing home in order to gain enough strength so she could return back to the assisted living facility where she lived….
One of the most profound cases I worked on involved a girl who was prescribed Bactrim by doctors at a medical clinic for complaints of a sore throat following an outdoor soccer match in cool weather. Soon after taking the medication, the girl began to develop bumps on her throat, followed by a skin rash.
After several more visits to the clinic, the doctors advised the girls parents to continue with the Bactrim. Soon, the girl got progressively weaker and the rash progressed to the point where her skin had become so irritated that it was actually coming off and looked as though she was severely burned.
Obviously disturbed by their daughter’s condition, the parents took the girl to a prominent university hospital. Soon after taking a history and conducting a physical examination, the doctors diagnosed the girl with Stevens Johnson Syndrome (SJS)….