Who Takes Responsibility for Medication Mistakes?

When you’re prescribed or administered medication, you expect it to be the correct dosage or administered the proper way. If a medication mistake occurs, the side effects could be minimal or could be more severe. On one end, you could have prolonged treatment because you didn’t receive enough medication. On the other end, you could overdose or have an allergic reaction and die from the medication.

If your doctor or other healthcare professional makes a medication mistake that injures you, then they should be held responsible for their negligent actions. At Belsky & Horowitz, LLC in Baltimore, our experience with medical malpractice claims will help you get full and fair compensation for the damages you suffered from medication mistakes.

Who Is Responsible for the Medication Error?

When you are getting medication, there are many people along the line who could make a mistake that ends up harming you. Whether it’s your doctor who prescribed your medication, the nurse who administered it, or anyone else in the process who inputted the dosage incorrectly, made a typo, or gave you the wrong drug, someone must be held responsible for the medication mistake.

Medication is given by many different members of the healthcare community. That’s why it can be hard to figure out who is accountable for the mistake that caused you harm. The medication error could be caused by your doctor, nurse, pharmacist, or any other medical professional who was tasked with finding, gathering, or administering your medicine. A medical malpractice lawyer from Belsky & Horowitz, LLC will fully investigate who caused or made the mistake so we can hold them responsible for their negligence.

As with any form of medical malpractice, a medication error can be deadly. There are many ways that a medication error can harm you, regardless of who made the mistake. Some of the most common ways that medication errors harm people include:

• Birth defects
• Hospitalization
• Disability
• Life-threatening situation
• Death

Types of Medication Errors

Medication mistakes can happen at any point between being prescribed a medication and finally receiving it. There are certain points where medication errors take place, according to an article published by the National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI). Those points are ordering and prescribing, documenting, transcribing, dispensing, administering, and monitoring.

More specifically, here are the types of medication errors that can occur that lead to the injury or harm of a patient who is receiving the medication, according to the NCBI’s article:

• Prescribing errors
• Omission
• Wrong time
• Unauthorized drug
• Improper dose administered
• Wrong dose on the prescription
• Wrong dose prepared
• Administration errors, like using the wrong route to give the medication
• Giving the drug to the wrong patient
• Giving an extra dose
• Giving the medication at the wrong rate
• Ignoring allergies
• Failure to monitor the patient after for reactions or negative effects on organs

The article states that over 50% of medication errors are in the ordering and prescribing stage, because doctors and other medical professionals either write the wrong medication, dose, route, or frequency. Nurses and pharmacists account for up to 70% of those ordering and prescribing errors.

Depending on what caused the medication mistake, such as look-alike labels, or similar names, the error could warrant a report to MedWatch through the FDA. This can prevent future patients from experiencing the same trouble that you did by addressing what caused the mistake and potentially changing the label, name, or something else so it’s easily identified.

Hire Belsky & Horowitz, LLC to Represent You

Medication mistakes can easily change your life. If a mistake was made by your doctor, nurse, or pharmacist that led to you receiving improper medication, then you should hold them responsible for medical malpractice. Although you might feel hesitant to go up against medical professionals in a legal claim, it’s important that you do so they are held accountable and don’t make the same mistake with another patient.

At Belsky & Horowitz, LLC, our experienced Baltimore medical malpractice lawyers know that a mistake in healthcare is a sensitive subject and your case requires extra care. When we take your case, you’ll feel confident that you have expert attorneys on your side who are dedicated to fighting for your rights. Reach out to us today so we can discuss your potential claim and get started today.