Would you like to know what really happens when a medication mistake goes wrong?
Thousands of families learn this way too hard every year. Wrong dose. Wrong bottle. Prescription that never should’ve been written…and suddenly you’re rushing your loved one to the hospital. Maybe even worse.
The frightening thing? Most errors are entirely preventable. Which is what makes errors affecting our most vulnerable citizens-seniors in assisted living -so tragic.
Here’s what you need to know…
What’s inside this guide:
- How Common Prescription Errors Really Are
- Who Gets Hurt The Most
- What Counts As A Prescription Error
- Your Options After Harm Occurs
How Common Prescription Errors Really Are
Ok. Let’s begin with honesty. Prescription mistakes happen more often than you think.
Medication errors actually injure at least 1.5 million people nationwide every year. 1.5 Million. Not a typo there either. Millions of people are affected by preventable mistakes.
And it gets worse.
Every year, somewhere between 7,000 and 9,000 Americans die as the result of a medication error. At least one person dies every day. These are not freak accidents. They happen every day, quietly, throughout America.
This is where it can really become important to families. Serious harm to an elderly family member from a prescription error, particularly one that occurs in a nursing home, can be indicative of larger problems. Neglect. Understaffing. Sloppiness, repeated again and again. If you suspect that may be the case in your loved one’s situation, a discussion with a knowledgeable California medical malpractice attorney can be a great first step to finding out what happened and who is at fault.
Why does this matter so much for seniors?
Because the numbers show they carry the biggest risk of all.
Who Gets Hurt The Most
Prescription mistakes do not affect all people equally. Some individuals are much more susceptible.
Think about it:
Seniors fill more prescriptions than any other age group. Almost 40% of those 65 and older take five or more medications simultaneously. The more medications you are on, the greater your risk of experiencing an adverse event.
Studies support this claim. When a patient is prescribed five drugs, they face a 58% chance of experiencing an adverse drug reaction. That number rises to 82% when patients are prescribed seven or more drugs. Yikes.
Here’s the problem with care homes…
Nursing home residents should be safe. There are trained professionals who administer medications so errors aren’t made. However, that isn’t always the case.
Research has indicated that between 16 and 27 percent of nursing home patients have suffered from a medication mistake. Combine understaffed buildings and harried employees and minor mistakes become disasters quickly.
Common problems in care facilities include:
- Giving medication to the wrong resident
- Wrong dosages, too much or too little
- Administering expired drugs
- Missing doses entirely
- Dangerous drug combinations that were never checked
If these errors injure a frail elderly person, it’s no longer just a medical mistake. It could be considered neglect. That’s a big problem. And it’s precisely when families seek out an elder abuse lawyer to help their loved one.
What Counts As A Prescription Error
A lot of people don’t realise how many ways a prescription can go wrong.
It’s not only a pharmacist picking up the wrong bottle. Mistakes can occur at virtually every step of the process from when the doctor writes the prescription until the pill hits the patient’s tongue.
Let me break it down for you:
Prescription errors occur most frequently at the prescribing phase of treatment. Research indicates that medication errors take place up to 91% of the time when medication is ordered or prescribed. In other words, the error originates with the prescribing physician prior to the medication reaching the pharmacy.
The main types of prescription errors include:
- Wrong drug: The patient receives a completely different medication than intended.
- Wrong dose: Too much or too little of the correct medicine.
- Wrong patient: Medication prescribed for another patient, usually due to label or communication error.
- Bad combinations: Two or more drugs that should never be taken together.
- Ignored history: Prescribing something the patient is allergic to or shouldn’t take.
Seniors can be particularly adversely affected by certain medications. Blood thinners such as warfarin have been associated with extreme cases of harmful bleeding if overdosed. Messing around with one microgram of medicine such as that could be fatal.
Here’s what makes these cases different from a simple accident…
If a facility or provider disregards warning signs, misses safety checks, or fails to monitor a patient properly, that’s more than human error. That could be negligence. Negligence is a legal matter.
Your Options After Harm Occurs
So what actually happens after a prescription error causes harm?
Well, it depends. However, you do have more choices than you may realize.
First, the medical side.
Health is the first priority. That means stopping whatever medication is causing harm, healing any trauma, and getting a realistic assessment of damage. Occasionally a family member has to step in and question a lengthy prescription list.
Then, the accountability side.
Okay. Now for the stuff that matters. If a prescription mistake actually causes harm to someone, that person or business can be held legally liable. The prescribing physician, a pharmacy, a nursing home or care facility, or a hospital can all be liable.
Determining liability is difficult. Medical records must be investigated. Staffing needs to be analyzed. The entire sequence of events needs to be reconstructed to determine where the process failed.
That’s why families seek legal counsel. An attorney can find out what occurred, collect evidence and hold the appropriate people responsible. Particularly when the victim was a vulnerable senior.
Think about it. Punishing a facility is not just about damages. It’s about protecting someone else from the same negligence.
Bringing It All Together
Prescription mistakes are among the most frequent and most preventable injuries affecting people today. Millions of people are impacted each year and seniors are at the highest risk.
To quickly recap what you’ve learned:
- Medication errors harm over 1.5 million Americans a year
- Older adults on multiple prescriptions face the highest risk
- Nursing home residents are especially vulnerable to these mistakes
- Most errors happen during the prescribing stage
- Someone may be legally responsible when harm occurs
If your loved one has been injured due to a prescription error, don’t chalk it up to bad luck. Mistakes like this can be a symptom of larger issues such as negligence and understaffing. Finding out why it happened is the first step in keeping your family safe from repeat occurrences.
Take action today, because your loved one deserves to be safe.
