Medical Malpractice by Medication Error

One type of error that can cause a medical malpractice lawsuit is a medication error. A medication error is any preventable occurrence that could cause or has caused a patient harm while a healthcare professional, consumer, or patient is in control of the medication. These occurrences could be related to professional practice, miscommunication of the order, mislabeling of the product, packaging, dispensing, compounding, administration, distribution, education, or use.

Types of Medication

• Sample medicine
• Prescription medicine
• Vaccines
• OTC medicines
• Radioactive medicines
• Intravenous solutions
• Respiratory treatment
• Parenteral nutrition
• Herbal remedies
• Vitamins
• Blood derivatives
• Diagnostic agents
• Products classified as a drug by the FDA

Types of Medication Errors

There are three broadly defined medication errors:

Prescribing mistakes: The most common medication error is a prescribing error. These errors are made by doctors, nurse practitioners, or physician’s assistants. Some examples of prescribing mistakes include:

• Incorrect drug selection for a patient
• Failure to change medication for patients that have impaired liver or kidney function
• Miscalculating the dosage.
• Using the wrong drug name or wrong dosage form
• Not considering drug-food or drug-drug interactions

These errors are usually caused by: the doctor not having proper knowledge of a medication; lack of knowledge of the patient; miscommunication among pharmacists and doctors; poor record-keeping; or simply not following proper policies.

Dispensing mistakes: These mistakes are made by pharmacy technicians or pharmacists. Research shows that almost 90% of dispensing errors could have been prevented. The most common dispensing mistakes include:

• Providing the wrong prescription to a patient
• Providing a prescription to the wrong patient
• Confusing two drugs with similar names or features
• Not verifying a dosage or drug name
• Not identifying any drug allergies of the patient
• Labeling a prescription incorrectly
• Not providing adequate counseling to the patient
• Not protecting a patient from harmful drug interactions

These errors are usually caused by: the personnel not being trained adequately; using improper abbreviations; not using proper decimals; using illegible handwriting on prescription; labeling improperly; and personnel being stretched too thin with an excessive workload.

Drug administration errors:  These errors are made by nursing personnel and happen if one or multiple of the “five rights” are violated.

• The five rights are:
  • The right dose
  • The right drug
  • The right patient
  • The right time
  • The right route

These errors are usually made by nursing personnel in long-term facilities, acute care hospitals, and throughout home care. This is because these types of environments are demanding for nurses and there are usually long hours, high staff turnover, constant interruptions, and staffing shortages.

Medication errors are considered a type of medical malpractice. Medical malpractice is when a healthcare professional’s conduct does not match the standard of competence and it results in damages to the patient. Medical malpractice can occur with any licensed healthcare professional, which includes doctors, nurses, physician’s assistants, nurse practitioners, and pharmacists.

Damages

There are both economic damages and non-economic damages involved in a medical malpractice lawsuit, and you may benefit from a medical malpractice lawyer Salt Lake City, UT trusts. Non-economic damages are viewed as inconvenience, pain, and suffering. Economic damages are considered loss of earnings, economic losses, and medical costs.

Thank you to our friends and contributors at Rasmussen & Miner for their insight into medical malpractice.