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Medications along with other pharmaceuticals can be hugely effective when prescribed and used correctly. On the other hand, whenever a prescription medication is prescribed mistakenly or a dosage mistake occurs, the effects for the sufferer might be severe possibly even fatal. Medical professionals, pharmacists, and nurses might be held responsible for medical malpractice involving medication errors, which occurs all too often.
No less than 1.5 million US patients are sickened, injured or killed annually as a result of mistakes in prescribing, dispensing and taking medications, the Institute of Medicine determined in a major survey released in 2006. A concerning review by a panel of experts found that errors in giving prescription drugs are so common in hospitals that, on average, a patient will be subjected to a medication mistake each day he or she occupies a hospital bed! A great number of medication mistakes could be avoided if medical professionals adopted electronic prescribing or if hospitals had a standardized bar-code system for verifying and dispensing drugs, the report said.
Typical mistakes include medical professionals writing prescription medications that could interact dangerously with other medications a patient has been prescribed, nursing staff adding the wrong drugs — or an incorrect dosage — in an intravenous drip and pharmacists dispensing 100-milligram pills instead of the prescribed 50-milligram dosage. Based on past research, the panel thought that medication errors contribute to at least 400,000 avoidable injuries and deaths in hospitals every year, in excess of 800,000 in nursing homes and facilities for the elderly, and 530,000 among Medicare clients cared for in outpatient centers. The report explained the exact figures are most likely much higher.
Doctors have a responsibility to make certain that the drugs they prescribe for their patients are appropriate and are given correctly. Equally, hospitals, through their nursing personnel, have a duty to ensure prescription drugs are appropriate and given as directed by the medical professional. Furthermore, pharmacists and pharmacy employees are accountable for making sure that drugs ordered do not conflict with other prescription drugs an individual could be taking and for filling prescriptions correctly. Sadly, these obligations are often neglected and significant errors happen in prescribing and giving prescription drugs to patients.
If you or someone you know has been injured by a medication error, contact a good injury law firm in Augusta GA to get a consultation. Try to find lawyers who have experience representing sufferers of medication errors, and also have access to specialist consultants who can help in evaluating your case.
Select Augusta Georgia Personal Injury Law Firms now if you have been injured by Medical Malpractice.
A Medical Malpractice Lawyer in Augusta Georgia might be able to help you get the compensation you deserve.
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