When you are seriously sick or injured, you would think that one of the best places to be would be the hospital. While hospitals can be great places to receive medical treatment after an accident, a hospital can also be a place where “accidents” happen. The last thing any patient needs when he or she is trying to recover from an illness or surgery is to become the victim of a so called “medical error.” One of the most common errors that hospitalized patients are at risk for are what are referred to as medication errors.
A medication error simply refers to any preventable event that causes or leads to a patient being given inappropriate medication. Medication errors happen for a variety of reasons, including:
- Inadequate dosing: This occurs when the patient receives the right medication but not the correct dose. Overdosing or administering too much of a medication can be just as dangerous administer too little of a medication to a patient. For example, not enough of a medication can be the equivalent of not given the patient the medication at all. On the other hand, too much of a medication, like the pain reliever morphine can be deadly.
- Incorrect medication: Errors can also occur when a patient receives the wrong medication. This can happen when two drugs that have similar names. Taxol and Taxotere, for example, are both chemotherapy drugs, but are used for different types of cancers and have different dosing levels. Drugs like Zyrtec (allergies), Zyprexa (mental conditions) and Zantac (heartburn) have also been confused with one another—three drugs that have very different purposes.
- Failure to check new medications with current medication regime: Drugs are like people. Some drugs play very nicely with others while some drugs do not. This is why it is important for medical personnel to double check the list of medications a patient is currently on before he or she prescribes another medication
- Failure to check a patient’s drug allergies: Drug allergies are fairly common. If a patient is allergic to a particular drug or classification of drugs, the doctor or pharmacist needs to be aware of and check for allergies.
- ls are the key to a patient understanding how to correctly administer a drug. If the label fails to properly inform the patient how to administer the drug, he or she may receive too little or too much of the drug.
All patients in the hospital need to be aware of medical errors, but two groups are most at risk of serious harm from medication errors: the elderly and young children. Older adults are often on other medications, and more than half of fatal medication errors occur in adults over the age of 60. Young children are also a greater risk of harm, because drugs are often given based on a person’s weight.
If you believe that you or a loved one was a victim of medical malpractice, it is of great importance that you seek out an experienced Kansas City Medical Malpractice Attorney. Proving a case of medical malpractice requires key knowledge of the law and diligence investigating the facts. The Kansas City Medical Malpractice Attorneys at Hubbard & Kurtz, L.L.P. have helped countless injured victims around the area, both in Kansas and Missouri, and know how to prove a case. To find out how the attorneys at Hubbard & Kurtz, L.L.P. can help you, contact our office today at (816) 472-4673 to schedule a consultation. At Hubbard & Kurtz, L.L.P. we strive to provide injury victims with superb legal services.
