If you have an elderly loved one in a nursing home, and that senior gets sick, the attending nurse or doctor at the nursing home can usually prescribe the right kind of medication for the illness or injury.
Most of the time, the nursing home resident gets the right medication. But there is an isolated chance that the wrong medication may be given to your loved one incorrectly.
This medical error could happen anywhere in the medical distribution chain, from an error on the handwritten prescription note to the pharmacist reading it incorrectly to getting a completely different drug that could do more harm than good.
Nurses, doctors, and prescribing physicians can all make errors. These lapses in focus can be harmless or can lead to a major injury for the person who gets the wrong medication for their illness or injury. This could be especially harmful to an elderly senior living in a nursing home who is dependent on the medication to manage pain.
If your loved one in a nursing home has been prescribed incorrect medication and suffered physical pain, as a result, it may be time to hire a Jacksonville medication errors lawyer. At Pintas & Mullins Law Firm, our lawyers can support you with advice about your legal options. Our team can also try to help your loved one recover financial compensation for damages suffered as a result of getting the incorrect medication.
Call our team at (800) 842-6336 to discuss the circumstances of your loved one’s medication error at the nursing home.
Neglect in Nursing Homes
Receiving the wrong medication is a symptom of neglect in nursing home facilities. It is just one of the ways that some nursing care facilities let down their residents in one way or another. Thousands of families place their trust in nursing home staffers to care for their loved ones. When that trust is violated, and the care becomes haphazard, inconsistent, or just plain negligent, serious issues can arise for the resident.
Nursing home residents may suffer serious pain from physical issues or even mental, social, and emotional issues. To ease this pain and keep deeper issues from arising, many nursing home residents take regular doses of medication. If the nurses make mistakes in administering the medications, the resident could suffer a severe reaction or become substantially imbalanced without the right medications.
In some rare cases, medication errors can result in wrongful death, but more commonly, these errors usually lead to a range of other physical complications. It’s important to keep a close eye on the medications for your loved one in a nursing home. Mistakes in prescriptions can happen, and pharmacy mishaps can lead to severe issues for your loved one.
Maybe your elderly senior hasn’t had the right medications for weeks or months, and the existing conditions are getting worse. You may want to seek legal help from a Jacksonville medication errors lawyer at Pintas & Mullins Law Firm. We have handled these types of cases and can offer legal support.
From Medication to Malpractice
Medication errors leading to injury can be cause for a medical malpractice lawsuit. If you feel that your loved one getting the wrong medication is grounds for a medical malpractice suit, you can reach out to our team for a free consultation related to your claim against a negligent nursing home.
Here is a list of some of the negligent causes that can lead to medication errors or even malpractice:
- Staff or administration oversights: This could include administering too much or too little medication, administering expired medications, or neglecting to monitor a resident after receiving their medication.
- Using an incorrect administration technique.
- Documenting the administration incorrectly.
Errors in these areas of medication can be made through a lack of knowledge, lack of management control, or lack of rules. A combination of these three can result in a resident at a nursing home becoming the unwelcome recipient of the wrong medication.
For a free legal consultation with a Jacksonville Medication Errors Lawyer serving Jacksonville, call (800) 794-0444
Medication Errors and Their Causes
Medication errors can be made by physicians, nurses, pharmacists, anesthesiologists, or other nursing home staff. Basically, anyone who prescribes, administers, or provides medication to a nursing home patient can be held responsible for the errors.
These mistakes made in dispensing medications could be due to a number of reasons, but certainly, a medical professional’s long hours, daily stress, and pressure-filled situations are part of the cause for medication mistakes. There are other reasons for some of the errors as well:
- Improper procedures and protocols
- Poor administrative oversight
- Lack of knowledge of medication administration
- Poor communication processes in the nursing home
- Literacy and language barriers among patients
- Medical complications
- Interruptions and resident distractions
- Incomplete or inaccurate patient records
Jacksonville Jacksonville Medication Errors Lawyer Near Me (800) 794-0444
Filing a Medical Malpractice Lawsuit
To achieve a successful lawsuit against a nursing home for errors made in medication administration, a plaintiff must show that the nursing home was negligent in the overall process of medication errors. Negligence can be shown if the health care provider failed to provide a duty of care to your loved one in the act of prescribing or administering medications accurately.
Some questions that might need answers include:
- Did the staff member take the appropriate steps to inform your loved one about the drug and any possible side effects regarding dosage?
- Was the medication prescribed by the physician the same medication received at the nursing home via a pharmacy?
- Were the doses of medication given in the right amounts?
You and your Jacksonville medication errors lawyer must try to make the connection between the negligence of the nursing home staff and the effects felt by your elderly senior as a result. Once you are able to provide cause and effect in the way the medications were given, then you may be on your way to achieving a financial settlement for the injury or illness to your loved one.
Contact Pintas & Mullins Law Firm today at (800) 842-6336 and speak to a legal representative to seek advice for your situation. Your first call with us is free, without obligation.
Call or text (800) 794-0444 or complete a Free Case Evaluation form
