Are Nursing Homes Responsible for Medication Errors?
Although they are rare, medication errors do occur on long-term healthcare facilities like nursing homes.
When those errors do occur, you may wonder who is responsible for any injuries that result from the error.
How Medication Errors Happen
Before technology became so prevalent in medicine, medication errors happened more frequently. A pharmacist may have difficulty reading the handwriting of a physician or a nurse may misread a patient’s chart and administer an improper dose. Today, prescriptions are sent to pharmacies electronically, making it less likely that an error will occur.
However, doctors and nurses are human which means they can mistakenly type in the wrong information that is sent to the pharmacy. Even if the prescription is sent properly, the person administering may read 100 mg of a medication that should be only 10 mg.
Medications also have similar names, so it is possible for a nurse to choose the wrong one and administer it to the patient. It is also possible that a patient may be allergic to a medication but fail to let the doctor know. These are just a few of the ways that medication errors can occur in a long-term healthcare facility.
Prescription or Administration Mistakes
Although most mistakes regarding administration or drug choice are accidental, they may still be considered negligent. Nursing homes should have checks and balances in place that prevent a nurse from inadvertently giving a patient a higher dose of medication than they should receive or administering the wrong medication.
Failure to have such protections in place can be viewed as negligence on the part of the healthcare facility. In some cases, a nurse may give an injection in the wrong place, such as injecting into a vein rather than a muscle. This can also be viewed as negligence as well.
How to Prove Nursing Home Malpractice
Malpractice in any medical facility comes down to medical negligence. In long-term healthcare facilities, courts determine if the nurse or doctor failed to exercise the same degree of care or skill that the average healthcare provider would have taken under the same circumstances.
The courts look at advances in medical practice as well as the resources that were available to the medical professional at the time. In order to prove medical malpractice, you must prove that the healthcare provider did not act in a reasonable manner similar to what others of the same level of competency would have done.
If you or a loved one have been the victim of a medication error in a long-term healthcare facility, you may be eligible for a personal injury claim. Contact Lundy Law today to learn what rights you may have.
You can arrange for an initial consultation by completing the easy form on our website or by calling 1-800 Lundy Law. We will guide you through the steps you should take and help you get the compensation you deserve under the law.