Child Custody Cases – Research, News, and Child Custody Lawyers

Archive for September 1st, 2010

Medicines along with other pharmaceuticals are often very effective if prescribed and used in the correct way. Then again, when a medication is prescribed mistakenly or perhaps a dosage error happens, the effects for the affected person could be considerable and in some cases deadly. Medical professionals, pharmacists, and nursing staff may be held liable for medical malpractice involving medication errors, which occurs all too often.

At least 1.5 million people in the USA are sickened, killed or injured every year as a result of errors in prescribing, dispensing and taking medicines, the Institute of Medicine found in a major report released in 2006. An alarming review by a panel of experts found that mistakes in issuing prescription drugs tend to be so widespread in hospitals that, typically, an individual could be subjected to a medication error each day they is in a hospital bed! A number of these medication mistakes might be avoided if physicians implemented electronic prescribing or if hospitals had a standardized bar-code system for checking and dispensing drugs, the report explained.

Frequent errors include doctors writing prescription medications which could interact dangerously with other medicines an individual is taking, nursing staff putting the wrong medication — or an incorrect dose — in an intravenous drip and pharmacists dispensing 100-milligram pills as opposed to the prescribed 50-milligram dosage. According to past research, the panel thought that drug mistakes contribute to no less than 400,000 avoidable injuries and fatalities in hospitals each and every year, more than 800,000 in nursing homes and facilities for the elderly, and 530,000 among Medicare recipients dealt with in outpatient treatment centers. The report claimed the exact figures are probably a lot higher.

Doctors have a responsibility to make certain that the medicines they prescribe for their patients are suitable and are also given correctly. Likewise, hospitals, via their nursing employees, have a duty to ensure medications are suitable and given as directed by the physician. In addition, pharmacists and pharmacy employees are responsible for ensuring that drugs ordered don’t conflict with other medications a patient may be receiving and for filling prescriptions correctly. However, these responsibilities are regularly neglected and severe mistakes occur in prescribing and giving medicines to patients.

If you or somebody you know has been injured by a medication mistake, phone a competent injury lawyer in GA for a consultation. Search for attorneys that have experience representing victims of medication errors, and also have access to specialist consultants who can help in considering your case.