Medication Errors Most Commonly Committed by Nurses
A recent study by the New York Department of Health indicated that more medication errors occur at the hands of nurses than any other health care professional.
This makes sense when you consider that nurses are the ones who are most frequently responsible for administering medications in hospital and even doctors’ office settings.
It’s true that doctors sometimes write the wrong prescription or the pharmacist fails to identify a possible dangerous drug combination. But by and large, our injury attorneys in South Carolina recognize that medication errors are often attributed to mistakes and oversights made by nurses. If you or a loved one were injured, contact attorney S. Randall Hood of McGowan, Hood, Felder & Phillips, LLC today for a free case evaluation.
Of course, most nurses got into the profession to help. They want to make a difference. Save lives. And most do. The problem is multi-layered. Administrators sometimes have unrealistic expectations. Nurses are often limited in the amount of time they can spend with each patient. Many health care facilities are understaffed. Most nurses are required to work back-to-back 12-hour shifts, meaning fatigue is often ever-present. When certain fail-safes are not in place (such as digital prescription orders or incomplete charting procedures), mistakes are bound to occur.
The Office of the Inspector General for the Department of Health and Human Services reported in 2010 that bad care in hospitals – just involving Medicare patients – resulted in 180,000 patient deaths.
A more recent study, published in the Journal of Patient Safety, indicates that the numbers are far higher – somewhere between 210,000 and 440,000 patient deaths attributable to some type of preventable harm – including medication errors. If that figure is accurate, it would make medical errors the No. 3 cause of death among American adults, just behind heart disease and cancer.
In the New York study, it was noted that nurses administer the most medications and are often the last person in the medication delivery process. A doctor may make a prescription error, but he has the pharmacist or the nurse to catch it. A pharmacist may order the wrong drug, but there is still the possibility that the nurse will catch it. For nurses, however, in the absence of technological support, there is little or no opportunity for an error in the administration of a medication to be caught prior to administration.
Those most vulnerable were found to be over age 65, as well as those under age 5.
The most common potential for errors emerged when a patient was being transitioned across and between levels of care or when medications required complex dosing regimens. Also, inaccurate or incomplete information regarding medication regimens was found to be a significant contributing factor.
And it’s not just in hospitals, either. Researchers from the Weill Cornell Medical College in New York found in that state that more than half of all medical malpractice damage awards stemmed from outpatient care. A significant percentage of those cases were brought as a result of medication errors.
It is in these instances that patients can serve as their own best advocate. In fact, March marks National Patient Safety Awareness Week, and it’s a good time to remind patients to be vocal if something doesn’t seem right or feel right.
Bear in mind that health care professionals may be experienced, but they are also human. Mistakes can be made. Speaking up could save your life.
Contact McGowan, Hood, Felder & Phillips, LLC at 803-327-7800 for assistance with a South Carolina medical malpractice claim.
McGowan, Hood, Felder & Phillips, LLC has been a part of your community for years. We founded our firm in its current state in 2003, but each of our partners – Chad McGowan, S. Randall Hood, Johnny Felder and Robert Phillips – has more than 20 years of experience to his name. Since then, we have grown in both size and number, with nearly 20 attorneys whose primary goal is offer you and your family exceptional legal guidance and support when most needed.
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