Medication Mistakes Can Often be Avoided

When an overdose, medication mix-up or drug interaction occurs, it can often have been prevented. Medication mistakes affect over a million people in United States hospitals each year. These drug errors can lead to many complications, including death.

The National Coordinating Council for Medication Error Reporting and Prevention defines a drug error as “any preventable event that may cause or lead to inappropriate medication use or patient harm while the medication is in the control of the health care professional, patient or consumer.” Medication mistakes include cases of wrong dosage, overdose, adverse drug interactions and medication mix-ups.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) conducted a study that looked into the most common drug errors in the country. According to the researchers’ findings, improper dose of medicine was by far, the most common type of medication error. It accounted for 41 percent of the studied cases. Giving the wrong medication and administering the drug incorrectly were also identified as frequent drug errors, each accounting for 16 percent of the cases.

You don’t have to be one of many Americans injured by drug mistakes. There are some things you can do to protect yourself and your family members. First and foremost, never hesitate to ask questions. Not only will asking questions help eliminate any confusion, it will also help you understand the purpose of the drug and how to use it.

If the drug you are given by the pharmacist does not seem right, for example, if the name is different than what your doctor told you, don’t wait to bring it to the pharmacist’s attention. It is better to be cautious than to suffer the effects of the wrong drug.

Sometimes medication mistakes happen because of medical negligence. If this situation happens to you, you may be able to recover compensation for any injuries you sustained. Contact a New York medication error lawyer at the law firm of Rappaport, Glass, Greene and Levine at 800.734.9445 today for legal advice regarding your New York medical malpractice case.