Blog Posts - Medication errors
15
Jul 2022
Mistakes Were Made: Just How Strong Is the COVID Liability Shield?
A lawsuit in Knoxville, Tennessee has pitted a patient’s family against a hospital. The question at hand: is the nurse, who committed a medical error, protected by a federal COVID-19 emergency order? An article in the Tennessee Lookout by Jamie Satterfield lays out what happened. A patient with a variety of health problems, including COVID-19, was admitted to the Turkey Creek Medical Center for treatment….
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Oct 2021
Do I Sue the Nurse or the Doctor for an Incorrect Drug Dose?
Incorrect dosages of prescription medications can cause many problems for patients. If a patient receives one or more doses that are too low, they might not get the benefits they need from the medication, and their condition may worsen or even become life-threatening. If a patient receives too high a dose, it could have serious side effects or even result in an overdose, which requires…
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Sep 2020
When trying isn’t good enough: Errors persist in medical records, putting patients at risk
A recent study found that “serious safety vulnerabilities persist” in the use of electronic health records. The study reviewed safety performance over the span of ten years, from 2009-2018. Since medication problems are the most frequent cause of injury to patients, the study used a measurement tool from The Leapfrog Group to gauge whether patient safety has improved. Specifically, experts wanted to see if the…
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Dec 2019
Improve Medication Management for Patient Safety
In a world where we can monitor how many steps we take or calories we consume, as well as the location of our children and even the speed at which they drive, it would seem that a carefully monitored and safe system for administering anesthesia would exist. Not so. In anarticle in the October edition of Outpatient Surgery, Joyce Wahr, MD describes a recent observational…
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Dec 2016
Medication ErrorsA patient safety innovation
A lot of critical information is found on medication labels. But the bottles the medicine comes in are only so big. So what would you do if you are required to keep adding medical information to your packaging, but you only have a limited amount of space? Well, you could change the size of the bottle thus changing the size of the space, but that…
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Oct 2016
They Lie!
They Lie! Dr. Lars Aanning lied. He lied under oath at a medical malpractice trial over two decades ago. He says this lie has haunted him. I bet it has haunted the loved ones of the patient who died even more. But no mention of that by this now retired doctor in a recent article, Doctor Confesses: I lied to Protect Colleague in Malpractice Suit….
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Sep 2016
Doctors Play a Vital Role in Prescription Opiate Overdoses
Doctors continue to prescribe even after overdose One would think surviving an unintentional prescription opioid overdose would be a wake-up call prompting you to make changes in your life. You certainly wouldn’t think a doctor would continue to prescribe opioids — e.g., hydrocodone (Vicodin) and oxycodone (Percocet and OxyContin) — to someone who had nearly died from the drugs. Yet, a recent survey found that…
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Apr 2016
Prince, Another Victim of Opiates?
Unless you are living under a rock, you have heard the news that Prince recently passed away. Suspicions about Prince’s health were raised when he recently cancelled a concert in Atlanta, and his plane had to make an emergency landing in western Illinois on April 15. What is coming to light now is that drugs – specifically, prescription drugs – may have played a role…
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Jan 2016
Are Rude Doctors Killing Patients?
“I could have just died from embarrassment” takes on a whole new meaning The startling results of a recent medical study reveal that a surgeon’s rude remarks to his surgical team can lead to decreased performance and sometimes death. The Rudeness Impact Randomized Trial Most of us were taught at a young age that it’s not nice to be rude, and life has shown us…
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Mar 2014
The nursing home industry is not going to like this study
The nursing home industry in Ohio and nationally has likely felt a bit besieged the past few years by recurrent media stories focusing on substandard and sometimes even abusive care. Industry principals, home owners and legions of professional staff members across the country probably feel even more defensive these days, in the immediate wake of a government report that serves up hearty criticisms of the…
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Mar 2014
Superbugs: a growing health menace grounded in overprescribing
Question: When you’re truly ailing, where do you go to get better? Answer: Not necessarily the hospital. In addition to all of the evidence that has emerged in recent years showing that hospitals are not particularly safe environments for patients, new study findings are driving that point home with emphasis. It has long been known that hospitalized patients across the country, including in Ohio, suffer…
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Jan 2014
Bad medical recordkeeping might cause medication, other errors
Readers of this blog know the potential mistakes that can arise if a doctor or hospital fails to perform a thorough intake of a patient and/or maintain accurate medical records. Drug errors, which are a leading cause of medical malpractice lawsuits, are one example of what might go wrong when hospital personnel are negligent about a patient’s records and history. To get the conversation started,…
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Nov 2013
Internist scrutinized for prescribing alternative cancer drug
Early diagnosis of cancer can greatly impact a patient’s chances of recovery. Although other variables must be factored into the equation, such as the type of cancer, the risk of metastasis generally increases over time. For that reason, doctors are expected to detect early symptoms or warning signs of cancer in their patients. Any breach of that care, such as in the delayed diagnosis of cancer,…
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Nov 2013
Communication may be to blame for some medical errors
Although a doctor’s duty of care to a patient may begin with a diagnosis, it certainly doesn’t end there. At every point in treatment, a patient should understand the potential benefits and risks associated with each procedure or medication. A patient also deserves to be informed of his or her status in follow-up meetings after treatments. Under many current health care models, a team of…
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Oct 2013
What medicine can learn from aviation about error reporting
A physician anesthesiologist and medical contributor for Fox News Channel recently wrote an article on how the health-care field can reduce instances of preventable errors by learning from the aviation industry. First, the anesthesiologist served up some grave statistics on medical errors in the United States — such as about seven wrong-site surgeries occur each day in the country and about 1.3 million Americans are…
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Jan 2013
Patients often left in the dark after medication errors
We live in a world with countless prescription drugs that help us to live longer, healthier lives. But, as most people in Ohio and the rest of the nation know, prescription medications can be just as dangerous as they are helpful when used incorrectly. All too often, the wrong medication is administered to patients in hospitals, setting back their recovery times or causing even worse…
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Jan 2013
Study: Electronic health records causing patient safety issues
Most medical facilities throughout Ohio and the rest of the country have either made their health records electronic or are in the process of doing so. The common belief is that electronic health records are not only more organized and complete, but that they also promote better patient care. However, a new study recently revealed that hospitals are actually reporting more patient safety issues stemming…
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Aug 2012
Study: 2 in 10 prescriptions to seniors are inappropriate
Each year, countless people in Ohio are harmed by medication errors, and according to a new study published online this week, senior citizens may be particularly at risk. The study revealed that about 20 percent of the prescriptions primary care providers write for people over the age of 65 are inappropriate and could pose a health risk. The study involved surveying data from 10 previous studies….
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