August 21st, 2010 
Christopher
Prescription drugs and also other pharmaceutical products can be very effective when prescribed and used in the right way. On the other hand, if a prescription medication is prescribed incorrectly or perhaps a dosage error occurs, the results for the patient could be severe and in some cases fatal. Medical professionals, pharmacists, and nursing staff may be held responsible for medical malpractice involving medication errors, which occurs all too often.
More than 1.5 million patients in America are sickened, killed or injured each year through mistakes in prescribing, dispensing and using prescription drugs, the Institute of Medicine found in a major survey released in 2006. A worrying review by a panel of industry professionals discovered that errors in issuing prescription drugs tend to be so widespread in hospitals that, typically, a patient will be subjected to a medication error every day that person is in a hospital bed! A great number of medication errors would be avoided if physicians implemented electronic prescribing or if hospitals had a standardized bar-code system for verifying and dispensing medicines, the report explained.
Typical errors include medical professionals writing prescriptions that will interact dangerously with other medicines a patient is taking, nurses adding the wrong drugs — or the wrong dosage — in an intravenous drip and pharmacists giving out 100-milligram tablets as opposed to the prescribed 50-milligram dose. Based upon past reports, the panel believed that drug errors contribute to no less than 400,000 avoidable injuries and deaths in hospitals each and every 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 said the exact numbers are probably a lot higher.
Doctors have an obligation to make certain that the prescription drugs they prescribe for their patients are suitable and are also given in the right way. Equally, hospitals, through their nursing staff, have a duty to make sure medications are suitable and given as directed by the doctor. Additionally, pharmacists and pharmacy employees are accountable for making sure that prescription drugs ordered don’t conflict with other prescription drugs an individual could be taking and for filling prescriptions correctly. Unfortunately, these duties are regularly neglected and serious mistakes are made in prescribing and administering medicines to patients.
If you or somebody you know has been injured by a prescription medication mistake, phone a competent injury law firm in Columbia County to get a consultation. Look for law firms which have experience representing sufferers of medication errors, and have access to expert consultants who are able to assist in considering your case.
Call Augusta Personal Injury Attorneys immediately if you have been affected by Medical Malpractice.
Med Mal Law Firms in Augusta might be able to help you get the compensation that’s rightfully yours.
Posted in 
