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Prescription drugs and other pharmaceuticals can be extremely beneficial when prescribed and used in the correct way. However, if a medicine is prescribed improperly or possibly a dosage error occurs, the consequences for the sufferer might be critical perhaps even deadly. Doctors, pharmacists, and nurses can be held accountable for medical malpractice involving prescription medication mistakes, which takes place all too often.
More than 1.5 million people in America are sickened, injured or killed annually by errors in prescribing, dispensing and taking medications, the Institute of Medicine determined in a major report published in 2006. An alarming review by a panel of professionals noticed that errors in issuing drugs can be so widespread in hospitals that, on average, an individual could experience a medication error every day they is in a hospital bed! A great number of medication errors could possibly be avoided if medical doctors implemented electronic prescribing or if hospitals had a standardized bar-code system for checking and dispensing drugs, the report claimed.
Typical mistakes include doctors issuing prescriptions which could interact dangerously with other drugs a patient has been prescribed, nurses adding the wrong medication — or the incorrect dose — in an intravenous drip and pharmacists giving out 100-milligram pills as opposed to the prescribed 50-milligram dose. According to previous studies, the panel believed that drug errors result in at least 400,000 avoidable injuries and fatalities in hospitals each year, in excess of 800,000 in nursing homes and facilities for the elderly, and 530,000 involving Medicare recipients treated in outpatient clinics. The report stated the actual figures are probably a lot higher.
Physicians have an obligation to ensure that the drugs they prescribe for their patients are appropriate and are also given in the right way. Furthermore, hospitals, via their nursing personnel, have a responsibility to make certain medications are suitable and given as ordered by the doctor. In addition, pharmacists and pharmacy personnel are accountable for ensuring that medications ordered do not clash with other prescription drugs a patient could be receiving and for filling prescriptions correctly. However, these duties are sometimes neglected and significant errors happen in prescribing and giving medicines to patients.
If you or a person you know has been injured by a medication mistake, call an excellent injury lawyer in Georgia to get a consultation. Try to find attorneys that have experience representing victims of medication errors, and also have access to professional consultants that can help in considering your case.
Select Personal Injury Law Firms in Macon GA immediately if you have been seriously injured by Medical Malpractice.
A Medical Malpractice Lawyer in Macon GA may be able to get you the compensation you deserve.
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