Virginia Medical Malpractice Blog - Williamson & Lavecchia, L.C.

Using Technology to Prevent Medication Errors

Medication errors range from the benign to the catastrophic.  They occur due to mistakes by the prescribing physician, the pharmacist filling the prescription, the nurse administering the prescription and sometimes by the patient.  Examples include:

• Physicians writing illegible prescriptions
• Physicians prescribing medicine even though the patient is known to be allergic to one or more ingredients in the medication
• Pharmacists placing the wrong medication in the prescription bottle or syringe
• Pharmacists filling the prescription at the wrong dose
• Nurses administering the wrong medication to the patient
• Physicians and nurses failing to monitor the affect of the medication

When a patient is administered an incorrect medication or the wrong dose the harm ranges from losing the therapeutic value of the intended medication to life threatening side effects.  We have represented patients who suffered heart attacks due to medications dropping their blood pressure to patients who have tragically bled to death due blood thinning medications like Coumadin or Lovenox.

In almost all cases, these injuries can be prevented.  Studies have shown that when doctors, nurses, and pharmacists use readily available technology the error rate can drop by 80%.  For example, there is no risk of misconstruing a doctor's handwriting when the prescription is typed.  Additionally many hospitals are now using bar code systems to make sure the correct patient receives the correct medication.  Basically, each patient is given a wrist band with a bar code.  Likewwise each prescription contains a bar code.  Before a nurse administers a medication he or she should scan both the medication and the patient wrist band to ensure that the medication is given to the correct patient.

If you or a loved one has been injured due to a medication error it may have been avoidable.  Please contact us for legal guidance.

Regards,

Josh Silverman

Labels: