Prescription medications are meant to help, whether that means easing your pain, fighting an infection or lowering your blood pressure. But when prescription drugs aren’t used as intended, they can be dangerous. Unfortunately, mistakes happen–mistakes made by prescribing physicians, nurses administering medications in hospitals or nursing homes, pharmacists and others.
If you’ve been harmed because you were prescribed or administered the wrong medication, received the wrong dose of a medication, were given or prescribed a medication you are allergic to, or were prescribed a combination of medications with harmful interactions, you should consult a Utah prescription error lawyer in Salt Lake City right away.
Talk to a Utah Prescription Error Lawyer at Allred Vogt & Stuart (AVS)
Prescription drug error cases, like other medical malpractice claims, can be complicated. Simply having been administered or prescribed the wrong medication or wrong dose is not sufficient to establish liability. Instead, the burden is on the patient to prove that the medical professional or facility involved did not live up to the accepted standard of care.
At AVS, we know every case and every client is different. We aren’t here to negotiate a quick settlement, take our fee, and move on to the next. We’re here to listen, understand what went wrong and how you were harmed, and then fight for fair compensation.
We offer free consultations so you can make informed decisions about how to move forward with your claim and about whether we are the right prescription drug errors law firm for you. You can schedule your consultation right now by calling 801-876-7771 or filling out our contact form.
Dangers of Prescription Errors
The impact of a prescription error may range from minor inconvenience to serious medical harm or death. Some of the most common dangers include:
- Allergic reactions to the drug incorrectly prescribed or administered
- Harmful interactions with other medications you are taking
- Dangerous side effects based on an underlying medical conditions
- Not getting the benefit of the medication you should have been prescribed
- Overdose when the wrong dosage is administered
If you have suffered one of these or other medical effects after being prescribed or administered the wrong drug, you should speak to a Salt Lake City lawyer right away.
How Common are Medication Errors in the U.S.?
Exact numbers are difficult to establish due to differing definitions, inconsistent reporting and other variables. We do know the numbers are large. The FDA’s voluntary reporting system for medication errors gets about 100,000 reports annually. Studies have found that 1.5 million patients in the U.S. are impacted by prescription errors and medication administration errors each year. Those incidents reportedly result in about 400,000 preventable adverse effects each year, along with 7,000-9,000 deaths.
The risk of medication errors is increased if the patient is prescribed multiple drugs, or if the patient is 65 or older.
How Do Prescription Errors Happen?
Medication errors occur in a variety of ways, at different stages of the care process. These include:
- Errors when prescribing or ordering medication
- Errors in administering medication in a facility such as a hospital or nursing home
- Dispensing of prescription drugs at the pharmacy
- Compounding of the drug
If you or a loved one has received the wrong medication in a hospital or other facility or you have been prescribed the wrong medication and been harmed by it, you may not know where the process went wrong. You don’t have to sort that out. An experienced prescription error lawyer in Salt Lake City can investigate, obtain records from the medical facility, and help determine who was responsible.
Protections Against Prescription Errors
At every stage, there are multiple opportunities for error. For example:
- A physician may prescribe a drug with insufficient knowledge of its side effects or interactions
- A physician may prescribe a drug without checking the patient’s allergies or what other medications they are currently taking
- A physician may make an error in the dosage or instructions when prescribing a medication
- A nurse may administer medication to the wrong patient in a medical facility
- A nurse may administer the wrong medication to a patient
- A nurse may give a patient too much of a medication
Over the past three decades, the issue of medication errors has received a lot of attention, and many steps have been taken to reduce errors in both prescribing/administering medication and other aspects of medical care. Those efforts are the reason nurses look at your hospital bracelet before handing over your medication even though they’ve been caring for you for days and lab techs make you tell them your name and date of birth even though they have your lab orders in their hands.
Many other tools, such as automated checks for drug interactions, programs that calculate dosage for the physician, and medication storage that requires scanning or entering specific information to obtain drugs to dispense also play a role. But the problem is far from solved.
These procedures and tools make a difference. One recent study concluded that most prescription drug errors occurred at the prescribing or ordering stage, but that a significant percentage of them were caught by nurses and pharmacists. Still, even with precautions in place, humans make errors. Procedures and access to these tools also vary from facility to facility.
Risk Factors for Drug Errors
The National Coordinating Council for Medication Error Reporting and Prevention (NCCMERP) has identified a long list of risk factors that contribute to medication errors. Some of the most significant are:
- Failing to check patient information such as ID, allergies and other drugs taken
- Insufficient knowledge of medications being prescribed
- Failure to visually inspect drugs being administered
- Unnecessarily relying on manual calculations
- Rushed or incomplete communication among staff, particularly during shift change
- Failure to speak up when concerns arise
- Absent or pool labeling of drug packaging, or storing look-alike medications near one another
- Unlocked drug storage
- Juggling priorities while checking orders and dispensing medication
- Reliance on verbal orders and failure to read back verbal orders
- Poor orientation and supervision
- Inadequate patient education
- Dismissing patient/caregiver concerns about effects of the drug
- Failure to monitor efficacy and side effects
- Pressure to prioritize efficiency over safety
- Tolerating a practice of interruptions during drug dispensing and administration
- Failure to implement appropriate technologies
Protecting Yourself Against Drug Errors
Asking questions is your best defense, and you should never be afraid to speak up for yourself or voice your concerns. When your doctor gives you a new prescription, ask directly “This is safe to take with (name of your current medication)?” When a nurse comes into your hospital room and hands you a little paper cup of pills, ask what they are and what they are for. When you get a new medication from the pharmacy, use an online identifier to make sure the pills are the drug you were expecting. Slowing down the process ever so slightly and focusing on the medication can help catch many errors.
Talk to a Salt Lake Medication Errors Attorney
If you or a loved one has been harmed by a prescription error, you are likely entitled to compensation. But securing that compensation can be a complex process requiring technical and scientific knowledge.
At AVS, we regularly work with experts in the medical field to pursue compensation for victims of prescription errors and other types of medical malpractice. When you hire our firm, you can rest assured that your Salt Lake City lawyer has the knowledge and experience necessary to fight for you. You can also count on our commitment to pursuing the best possible outcome for you based on your priorities and the specifics of your case. That includes arguing your case to a Salt Lake City jury if that’s the best approach for you.
Call us today at 801-876-7771 or fill out our contact form to get started.
