6 Types Of Medication Errors To Look Out For When Receiving Medical Treatment In Pennsylvania

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6 Types Of Medication Errors To Look Out For When
Receiving Medical Treatment In Pennsylvania
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• Whenever you go to your local pharmacy or are
  otherwise purchasing a medication prescribed by
  your doctor, keep in mind that prescription drug
  errors account for a large percentage of medical
  malpractice lawsuits in Pennsylvania and all
  across the U.S.

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TYPES OF MEDICATION ERRORS TO LOOK OUT FOR

• As the number of Americans whose health and
  wellbeing relies on prescription drugs keeps
  rising year by year, it is no surprise that the
  number of those who get harmed due to a
  prescription drug error caused by negligence on
  the part of treating physicians, doctors, nurses,
  pharmacists or any other healthcare provider,
  keeps rising proportionately.

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Lets review some of the most common types of
medication errors any unsuspecting Pennsylvania
resident can become a victim of

1. Doctors, nurses or pharmacists administering the
   patient the wrong medication
2. Administering the patient the wrong dosage, i.e.
   overdose (receiving too much) or underdose
   (receiving too little)
3. Failure to properly label the drug (mislabeling)
4. Administering or prescribing the patient a drug
   that the patient is allergic to (the most common
   cause of this type of medication error is that
   the healthcare provider failed to review the
   patients medical history)
5. Administering or prescribing the patient a drug
   that increases the adverse effects of the other
   medication the patient is taking, or vice versa
6. Failure to warn the patient of all the reasonably
   expected side effects of the drug.

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ADMINISTERING THE WRONG MEDICATION OR DOSAGE

• More often than not, it is advised to consult
  with an experienced medication error attorney in
  Philadelphia or elsewhere in Pennsylvania when
  harmed due to a prescription drug error. Thats
  because there can be many liable parties in your
  particular case, as anyone and everyone who is
  involved with manufacturing, labeling,
  distributing, advertising, prescribing, and
  administering medications can be held liable for
  medication errors.

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Administering the wrong medication or wrong
dosage of the correct drug is more common than
you think. There can be many causes of this
particular type of prescription drug error

• Simply making a mistake about what medication
  should be prescribed or what dosage to prescribe
  (this one is most often caused by lack of medical
  experience or training on the part of the
  healthcare provider)
• Missing or transposing a decimal point when
  prescribing medication dosage (this can lead to
  the patient being administered the wrong dosage
  that exceeds the dosage that should have been
  prescribed by tens or hundreds of times)
• Administering the medication in the wrong part of
  the body (as you may have guessed by now, in most
  cases, nurses are responsible for this medication
  error)
• Administering the wrong medication or wrong
  dosage due to doctors bad handwriting in the
  prescription.

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MISLABELING AND FAILURE TO WARN OF SIDE EFFECTS

• If you have sustained an injury or illness
  because the medication was mislabeled or there
  was no proper warning of side effects, you may
  able to bring a product liability lawsuit against
  the manufacturer, distributor, retailer, and
  other parties liable for mislabeling the drug or
  failure to warn of side effects.However, doctors
  may also be held liable for this type of
  medication error. If you need a Philadelphia
  Medical Malpractice attorney, you can contact at
  267-587-6240

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