Pharmacy Error Injury Lawyer Blog

A jury in Miami awarded $12.6 million to Shaniah Rolle, a teenager who had to have all four limbs amputated because of a vaccination error thirteen years ago. After a five-week trial, the jury deliberated for three days before reaching a verdict. Rolle will not recover the full amount of the award, however, as the jury also found that her mother was forty percent negligent in the events that led to Rolle’s injuries. The defendant, the University of Miami’s Miller School of Medicine, will probably appeal the verdict.

As a young child, Rolle suffered from intestinal problems. Doctors concluded that they would have to remove her spleen and other organs. Since the spleen ordinarily protects the body from illness by filtering bacteria and other intruders, she would need medication to guard against infection. Her mother took her to the medical school’s pediatric unit in October 1998 for a checkup. A medical assistant gave Rolle an injection of a vaccine formulated for people without spleens. The assistant did not realize that the vaccine had expired five months earlier.

Because the vaccine failed to provide her protection against certain types of infection, Rolle became extremely ill about eight months later. At another hospital in Miami, doctors learned that she had a bacterial infection through her entire body that led to blood clots in her limbs. All four limbs had developed gangrene and had to be amputated above the joints.

Since then, Rolle has reportedly led a normal life. She attends Miramar High School in Miramar, Florida, and with the help of prosthetic limbs, she is on the school’s cheerleading squad.

Rolle’s mother filed suit against the medical school and the doctors who treated Rolle. Defense attorneys argued that Rolle would have become ill with or without the vaccine. A defense expert testified at the trial that the mother did not give Rolle enough medication to allow her to avoid infection. This was the basis of the jury’s conclusion that the mother was forty percent negligent. This means that the total award will be reduced by the amount of the mother’s negligence, so instead of $12.6 million she can recover around $7.56 million. This could be delayed even further, of course, if the hospital appeals.

Continue reading "Jury Awards $12.6 Million to Teenager Who Lost Her Limbs Due to Vaccination Error" »

The family of a south Florida man has filed a lawsuit against North Shore Medical Center in Miami. The man, 79 year-old Richard Smith, died in July 2010 when he went to the hospital complaining of shortness of breath and received the wrong medication. The nurse who administered the allegedly fatal dosage received disciplinary sanctions and paid a fine, which the family does not find satisfactory.

Smith told doctors he had shortness of breath and an upset stomach. His treating physician ordered Pepcid, an antacid available over the counter. The ICU nurse instead took a vial of Pancuronium from a locked cart and put it in Smith’s IV. Pancuronium is a muscle relaxant used by the ICU when intubating a patient. In larger doses, it is used by the Florida prison system in executions as part of a three-drug cocktail. The drug does not affect consciousness, but does significantly impair motor functions. At high enough doses, a person would not be able to breathe.

According to hospital records, no one noticed Smith’s condition for thirty minutes. When hospital staff finally recognized the problem, Smith’s heart had stopped. Resuscitation efforts did not succeed in reviving him. An investigation by the state found that the nurse on duty not only failed to read the label on the medication, but failed to scan both the drug label and Smith’s patient ID bracelet. These would have alerted the nurse to the problem. Another report indicated that the nurse did not follow safeguards established for the drug cart containing the Pancuronium. The state cited the hospital for this failure. The hospital has reportedly removed Pancuronium from most nursing areas in the hospital and created a new packaging system with clearer warnings.

According to local news covering the story, the nurse still works at North Shore. He reportedly received a reprimand, paid a $2,800 fine to the state, and attended remediation courses. The hospital described this as appropriate counseling and re-training. Smith’s family disagrees, saying through their attorney that the nurse should not still be permitted to work with patients. This Pharmacy Error Injury Lawyer Blog has previously reported on cases where medication errors causing death have led to criminal convictions for involuntary manslaughter. In this instance, the consequences apparently end at professional discipline.

Continue reading "Hospital Patient Mistakenly Given Drug Used in Executions" »

An Ohio pharmacist spent six months in jail for a medication error that led to the death of a two year-old child. Emily Jerry’s parents took her to a Cleveland hospital in February 2006 for the last of a series of cancer treatments. Her doctors ordered an intravenous chemotherapy solution. A pharmacy technician prepared her medication with the incorrect dosage of saline, 23 percent instead of 1 percent, and supervisor Eric Cropp signed off on the technician’s work. The saline amount proved to be lethal. Emily slipped into a coma shortly after the solution was administered, and she died several days later.

Cropp lost his pharmacist license and was charged with involuntary manslaughter for Emily’s death. The pharmacy technician who prepared the solution testified to the Ohio Board of Pharmacy that she told Cropp something was wrong with the mixture, but that he approved it anyway. Evidence presented in the criminal case depicted an overburdened pharmacy and staff, indicating that the pharmacy’s computer system was down the day of Emily’s death and the pharmacy was short-staffed, leading to a backlog of orders. Testimony suggested that the pharmacy had rushed and difficult working conditions. The specific chemotherapy solution for Emily was also evidently requested on an expedited basis. Cropp was found guilty and sentenced to six months in prison in August 2009. The pharmacy tech who actually mixed the solution apparently faced no criminal penalties.

Pharmacy representatives and advocates criticized the verdict and punishment for criminalizing a human error, albeit a tragic one. The Institute for Safe Medication Practices compared the process of investigating and criminally prosecuting a pharmacist to a game of “Whack-A-Mole,” with multiple government entities each swinging at the exposed medical professional. It also claimed that the pharmacist in this case was just one part of a larger, often-dysfunctional process. As a convicted felon, Cropp will never work in a pharmacy again.

While Cropp’s criminal case was ongoing, lawmakers were reviewing the fact that Ohio did not require pharmacy technicians to be licensed by the state. Republican state senator Ted Grendell proposed a bill that became known as “Emily’s Law” in July 2007, requiring a competency test for pharmacy technicians and imposing criminal penalties on both pharmacists and technicians for performing pharmacy work without meeting the new qualifications. Governor Ted Strickland signed the bill into law in January 2009.

Continue reading "Pharmacist Jailed for Fatal Medication Error" »

Pharmacy and medication errors in hospitals and elsewhere in the health care system create substantial risks to patients, along with errors in diagnosis and treatment, equipment problems, and others. State governments often work to promote and improve protection of patient safety in health care. Oregon, as an example, has taken a step towards improving patient safety by encouraging self-monitoring and reporting by hospitals, doctors, and pharmacies statewide. The Oregon Legislature passed a bill in 2003 that created the Oregon Patient Safety Commission, a collaboration between the health care industry and state agencies to prevent medical errors. The state estimates that, last year, at least 34 deaths throughout Oregon resulted from medical errors. The program encourages the submission of detailed reports on medical errors to the Commission, which compiles the data and keeps track of statistics and trends.

Oregon has 58 community hospitals, and all of them have agree to submit reports. Most of the state’s hospitals have been reporting since the program started in 2007, and only two hospitals were still holding out as of last year. According to the Oregon Association of Hospitals and Health Systems, hospitals are reporting errors at a rate to similar to that in states that mandate reporting. The system is far from perfect, though. Because of its voluntary nature, hospitals do not always provide patients with notifications of errors, even if they report those errors to the state. Hospitals also do not report every error known to have occurred.

Pharmacies and surgical centers in Oregon have some catching up to do. According to an investigation by the Oregonian newspaper, the state’s pharmacy board receives about 600 complaints per year, but the Commission only received six error reports from pharmacies between the fall of 2008 and the summer of 2011. About half of Oregon’s licensed surgical centers have agreed to participate with the Commission, and of those who have agreed, only two-thirds actually reported anything in the past year.

Continue reading "Patient Safety Initiatives in Maryland and Oregon are Showing Signs of Success" »

A patient at Alta Bates Summit Medical Center in San Francisco, California died over the weekend, allegedly due to an incorrect medication dosage from a replacement nurse. About 23,000 nurses across California went on strike on Thursday, September 22, 2011 due to a dispute between the nurses’ union and the healthcare network that runs Alta Bates and other hospitals. The strike was meant to last one day, but the nurses found themselves locked out when they tried to return to work Friday. The lockout continued through the weekend. The hospital brought in replacement nursing staff to cover the shifts for the union nurses.

The patient was a 66 year-old Oakland resident who had been receiving treatment at Alta Bates since July 2011. Preliminary findings indicate that her death resulted from the wrong dosage of a medication, which was administered by one of the replacement nurses.

The nurses’ union, the California Nursing Association, has questioned the qualifications of the replacement nursing staff. The American Nurses Association, which represents nurses nationwide, allows nurses to strike if the intent is to advocate for changes in hospitals to benefit patient health. The ANA’s ethics rules requires nurses going on strike to provide advance notice of their plans and to take steps to minimize any potential harm to patients. The purpose of Thursday’s strike was to protest contract concessions demanded by the healthcare network that, according to the union, would negatively affect patient safety.

Hospital officials have defended the replacement nursing staff, saying that they are all highly experienced, and that the hospital “did not skimp on any of the nurses." While the question of liability and “fault” may take some time to resolve, this incident clearly demonstrates the difficulties inherent in patient safety in hospitals, especially where medications are concerned. A hospital mired in confusion carries a great risk of pharmacy errors.

This Pharmacy Error Injury Blog has previously noted the high rate of risks for medication errors in hospitals despite efforts at accountability among doctors and nurses. This incident in San Francisco demonstrates a phenomenon noted by a recent study from Johns Hopkins, which found an increased risk of medication errors in hospitals that use temporary doctors and nursing staff. The study concluded that a lack of familiarity with a particular hospital’s systems and procedures among temporary staff can lead to an increased number of medication errors.

Continue reading "Patient Death During California Nurse Strike Possibly Due to Medication Error" »

A report from the Institute of Medicine finds that hospital patients in the U.S., on average, experience one medication error per day. Errors may include incorrect dosages, administering a drug with the incorrect method, or administering the wrong drug altogether. Some errors involve prescription of a drug with incomplete information about a patient's health history or allergies, leading to harmful reactions. Researchers also found instances of errors in which doctors and nurses did not have up-to-date information on the drugs they were prescribing and therefore did not know of newly-discovered risks. The report found a hospital medication error rate of eleven percent in its study and estimated that hospital patients receive an average of ten medication dosages each day.

Current estimates place the total number of annual deaths due to hospital medical errors at 7,000, and the total number of injuries at 1.3 million. Research shows that medication errors can lead to extensions of hospital stays of 8 to 12 days on average, leading to additional costs of $16,000 to $24,000 for the patients. Studies have found medication errors to occur in up to 3.7 percent of all hospitalizations. The total cost of injuries and deaths due to medication errors could be as high as $5.6 million per year per hospital.

Researchers have proposed many possible reasons for the number of medication errors known to occur. A 2002 study in the Journal of the American Medical Association linked a patient’s chancing of dying during routine hospital procedures to lower nurse-to-patient ratios, finding that the risk decreased as the number of patients assigned to each nurse in a hospital decreased. A recent study from Johns Hopkins University found a connection between medication errors and widespread use of temporary staff, including temporary doctors and nurses, in hospital emergency rooms. Johns Hopkins researchers concluded that errors may result from temporary staff’s lack of familiarity with a particular hospital’s systems and procedures. A 2006 study from the University of California at San Diego found a ten percent increase in fatal medication errors in area with teaching hospitals during the month of July. July is the month when medical school graduates first report to teaching hospitals. The study seems to confirm anecdotal evidence of the “July Effect,” where injuries and deaths in hospitals allegedly spike during the summer months.

Regardless of the conditions of hospital facilities or staff, hospitals, doctors and nurses have a duty of care to their patients to provide competent service, and this includes taking care to ensure correct prescription, dosage, and administration of medications. The fast-paced and often overcrowded nature of many hospitals creates a risk of error, and while a patient should certainly exercise diligence in monitoring their own treatment and medication as much as possible, the responsibility mainly lies with the nurses and doctors and the hospitals that employ them.

Continue reading "Hospital Patients are Subject to an Average of One Medication Error per Day" »

Our Prince George’s County, Maryland pharmacy error lawyer blog recently reported on the important role communication plays between patients and their healthcare providers—in order to reduce the risk of medication errors or pharmacy misfills, and to promote the safe and effective use of drug therapy.

Every year, 1.5 million Americans experience medication-related injuries, according to a study by the Institute of Medicine. In order to prevent medication errors, the American Pharmacists Association (APhA) reports that it is important for patients to keep accurate health records with them when visiting the doctor and pharmacist, including current prescription medication lists detailing the dosage information along with all health conditions that the medication is treating.

Patient medication lists can reduce the risk of pharmacy misfills, incorrect dosages, medication duplication, allergy interaction, and any harmful side effects from potential dangerous drug interactions. The APhA also states that by keeping drug lists with them at all times, patients can prevent medical error by providing emergency staff and hospital pharmacists with important information that could saves lives in an emergency.

According to a recent Chicago Tribune article, doctors are now recommending that individuals turn the medication lists into a comprehensive health journal, to keep healthcare providers informed and to prevent medication error injury.

Continue reading "Reducing Medication Error Injury by Keeping Health Record Journals " »

According to a recent study discussed in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), that our Baltimore medication error lawyers have been following, hospitalized patients are more likely to have medication errors than non-hospitalized patients—when drugs used to treat chronic conditions are unintentionally discontinued in hospitals, especially if the patients are in a hospital’s intensive care unit.

The study reportedly showed that transitions in healthcare can increase a patient’s chances for medical errors that stem from inaccurate or incomplete communication between the hospital staff, the primary care physician, and the patient—causing an interruption or discontinuation of medications that aim to help treat patients’ chronic diseases on a long term basis.

According to the authors, the problem of medication errors and the unintentional discontinuation of drugs can happen during hospital stays, transfers and discharge. Treatment in intensive care units can also increase the risk of medication errors of omission as the healthcare providers are focused on emergency care and may engage in the practice of discontinuing a medication used for chronic illnesses during a time of critical illness.

The medication error study followed nearly 400,000 patients who were older than 65, and who had over one year of experience continuously taking one of the following five drug classes: respiratory inhalers, gastric acid suppressors, statins, anticoagulant or antiplatelet agents, and levothyroxine, used to treat the thyroid gland.

Continue reading "Report Finds Medication Errors in Chronic Drug Therapy After Seniors Leave Hospitals" »

Our Baltimore medication error injury blog recently reported that according to the Institute of Medicine, 1.5 million medication error injuries occur every year around the country that are preventable, and as many as 98,000 deaths due to medical errors.

When Nelson Bailey decided to have elective surgery for diverticulitis, a condition causing him abdominal discomfort, he was told that he would be out of the Good Samaritan Medical Center in around four days. What Bailey didn’t expect, according to a recent article in the Sun Sentinel, was that he would suffer from two different and equally serious medical errors at the hospital that would change his live completely.

Bailey, a Palm Beach County judge, underwent the intestinal surgery in October 2009, where the surgeon made a medical error by mistakenly leaving a surgical sponge inside Bailey’s body—that was reportedly as big as a washcloth, and was left to fester for five months.

When Bailey was recovering from surgery he then experienced a hospital pharmacy error, after the pharmacy prepared the incorrect medication. The doctor had reportedly ordered blood pressure lowering medication, but when the wrong medication was sent from the pharmacy, the nurse gave him the drug without double checking the drug label.

Continue reading "Medical Error Leaves Judge with Surgical Sponge in Body" »

Our Hartford County, Maryland pharmacy error injury attorneys have been following the latest healthcare technology introduced by New York University’s Langone Medical Center, in an effort to reduce the amount of time it takes to check patients in to the hospital, and to eliminate medical errors.

As our lawyers have discussed in a previous Maryland medication error injury blog, according the Institute of Medicine, there are 1.5 million medication error injuries every year that are preventable, and as many as 98,000 deaths due to medical errors.

The new biometric technology aimed to improve patient safety is made by Fujitsu, the technology services company, and works with the concept that like fingerprints, every patient has an individual and unique palm-vein configuration. The technology uses near-infrared waves to take an image of a patient’s palm veins, which the software then links to that patient’s medical records in about a minute. Other reported benefits of the technology is that a patient does not have to be conscious during the check-in process, and the system eliminates the need for a patient to fill out any forms, unless the patient's insurance has changed since the last palm scan.

The hospital reportedly experiences around 1.7 million patient visits per year, and is in the process of converting as many patients as possible to the new palm scanning system, to prevent medical errors and patient injury. Since 250 scanners were installed in June, over 25,000 patients have received palm-vein scans that have been registered in the system. The palm scan does not appear in the patient’s medical records, and it is not stored as an image. After the palm is scanned, the image is converted into special numeric code.

Continue reading "New Palm-Vein Scanning Technology Introduced to Reduce Medical Errors in Hospitals" »

In a recent Baltimore County pharmacy misfill injury blog, our attorneys discussed a tragic medical error that caused the death of an premature infant, after a pharmacy technician accidentally entered the wrong information into the computer, causing the intravenous solution prepared buy an automated machine to contain a lethal dose of sodium chloride. This pharmacy error has reportedly brought the issue of electronic medical health records safety concerns back into the forefront of patient safety.

As our attorneys have reported in a related Hartford County medication error injury blog, the medical industry is shifting toward electronic medical records and computerized systems that make medical processes and prescription orders automatic, in an effort to reduce pharmacy error injury or wrongful death.

The Chicago Tribune reports that the federal government is also currently helping the digital shift by giving $23 billion in incentives to healthcare providers who purchase the electronic systems, with the hopes that these medical technologies will help increase access to patients' medical information, help healthcare providers communicate better with each other, help doctors to see test results more quickly, and implement electronic safeguards to remind doctors about recommended medical practices, or to alert them about harmful drug interactions before prescribing.

With all of the benefits that come with electronic medical records and computerized systems, potential problems are also taking place, like crashing of hospital computers, or software bugs that interfere with important data, or even delete information from computerized records. Computerized systems also reportedly can produce data about patients that is disorganized or difficult to read, especially when a doctor is quickly looking for critical patient information.

Continue reading "The Benefits and Problems of Electronic Medical Records Systems" »

A recent Chicago Tribune article, that our Baltimore pharmacy misfill injury attorneys have been following, looks closely at electronic medical record safety, after a tragic medication error occurred, stemming from a computer mistake made at the Chicago-area Advocate Lutheran General Hospital, that caused the death of a newborn infant.

According to the article, Genesis Burkett, an infant born 16-weeks premature, was given a fatal overdose of sodium chloride last year, receiving over 60 times the dosage ordered by the physician. The hospital pharmacy error was reportedly made after a technician from the hospital pharmacy misread and inaccurately typed the doctor's handwritten prescription orders into a hospital computer—a common source of pharmacy misfills and errors, as attorneys have discussed recently in a Baltimore pharmacy error injury blog.

The data entry mistake then caused a pharmacy misfill, as the automated machine prepared an intravenous solution containing a lethal overdose of sodium chloride that caused the infant’s heart to stop. Advocate Health Care’s chief medical officer, Dr. Lee Sacks stated that the pharmacy error could have been prevented by the automated alerts on the IV compounding machine, but at the time that the customized bag was prepared for the infant, the alerts were not activated and connected to the main pharmacy information systems at the hospital. The family’s attorney reportedly blamed the pharmacy error and wrongful death on a mislabeled IV bag.

After the medication error led to the infant’s tragic death, Advocate has since added electronic alerts to the IV compounders and initiated other medication safety measures to prevent this kind of pharmacy error from happening in the future.

Continue reading "Safety of Electronic Medical Records Questioned After Pharmacy Error Leads to Death of Infant" »

In a recent Baltimore pharmacy error injury blog, our attorneys discussed a pharmacy misfill and medication error that lead to a 94-year-old nursing home resident's wrongful death in New York, after she received the incorrect medication for nearly twenty days as a result of a pharmacy misfill.

In a related news report, a patient in a nursing home, also in the State of New York, has recently died, after medication errors allegedly led to her wrongful death.

The patient reportedly entered the Lake Ridge Care Center on the 10th of January in 2010, due to congestive heart failure and low potassium. Her doctor reportedly ordered that the she receive three doses (two-tablets) of potassium every day. According to the New York State investigation, the staff of the home failed to properly administer twenty-six of the medication doses to the patient over a period of eight days.

On January 23, 2011, the patient was reportedly sent to the hospital emergency room, where she suffered a severely abnormal heart rhythm and died the same day, from cardiac arrest. Her potassium levels were found to be extremely low, due to medication errors that led her to miss her prescribed potassium doses to help blood pump through the heart.

Continue reading "Medication Errors Linked to Death of Patient in Nursing Home" »

The Food and Drug Administration recently issued a warning about the potentially dangerous medication errors occurring with the drugs Risperdal (risperidone) and Requip (ropinrole)—with 226 reports of patients accidentally receiving the wrong drug, causing sickness and at least one death.

Risperdal (risperidone) is an antipsychotic used for the treatment of schizophrenia, autism side effects and bipolar disorder, and is reportedly being confused with Requip (ropinirole), a drug used for the treatment of Parkinson’s disease and Restless Legs Syndrome, that acts in place of dopamine.

According to the Food and Drug Administration report, the medication errors are happening as a result of the drug name similarity as well as the similarity in generic drug labels and packaging, with overlapping drug characteristics such as the drug strengths, and dosing intervals. Other errors have reportedly stemmed from illegible handwriting on prescriptions.

Patients who were victims of the medication errors have reportedly experienced confusion, tiredness, hallucinations, and an altered or changed mental status, among others health problems.

The FDA warns patients who are taking the generic versions of Requip or Risperdal to notice the name and appearance of their medication, to know exactly why they are taking the drug, and to ask any questions and to report any difference in medication appearance to their pharmacists—to avoid pharmacy misfills or medication errors.

Continue reading "FDA Warns of Confusion between Risperdal and Requip, Leading to Medication Error" »

In recent news that our Rockville, Maryland medication error injury attorneys have been following, twelve Los Angeles-area hospitals were hit with administrative penalties this week by the California Department of Public Health, ranging from $25,000 up to $75,000, after the facilities were found to be non-compliant with requirements that were likely to cause serious injury or death to patients.

One medical center, Promises Hospital, was reportedly fined $50,000 for a medication mix-up that caused a patient with a heart condition to require emergency response.

According to the Los Angeles Times, a medication error was reported in 2010 that led to the inspection of Promises Hospital. The inspectors reportedly found that a patient was given a dose of Cardizem, the drug used to treat irregular heart rhythms, that was 10 times the ordered dose—causing the patient’s heart rate to drop so quickly that the nurse was unable to get a blood reading for almost 10 minutes.

According to the department, when problems are found in facilities, hospitals must take corrective actions to prevent any similar medication errors or other problems from happening in the future, and causing injury or death to patients.

Promises Hospital reportedly claimed that it has initiated an investigation into the drug error, and has taken the necessary steps to prevent this medication mix-up for happening again in the future.

Continue reading "Hospital Fined $50K in Medication Mistake" »

The Institute of Medicine, reports that every year, 1.5 million people are injured by medication-related events. According to an article in the Wall Street Journal (WSJ), that our Baltimore medication error injury attorneys have been following, a recent report from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ), found that the number of patients treated in hospitals across the country for illnesses and personal injuries from incorrectly taking medications like sedatives, blood thinners, corticosteroids and other drugs, increased over 50% from 2004 to 2008.

The report also found that over 800,000 U.S. patients were also treated in emergency rooms across the country in medication-related events, stemming from the incorrect usage of antibiotics, insulin, painkillers, and cardiovascular and other drugs. The WSJ looked at some of these individual drugs, to examine how they can cause personal harm or injury if taken incorrectly. According to the report:

• Antibiotics can cause an allergic reaction if taken incorrectly, and can also fail to properly fight infections. Also, when taking antibiotics, patients are generally cautioned to limit sun exposure, as it can cause extreme sunburns.
• Painkillers can cause breathings problems or even death if taken with alcohol or other sedatives or painkillers. OTC products that contain the ingredient acetaminophen can harm the liver if taken with a combination of opioid-acetaminophen drugs.
• Antidepressants and tranquilizers, if taken incorrectly, can lead to panic attacks and suicidal tendencies or actions.
• If taken erroneously, corticosteroids prescribed for asthma, arthritis, transplant patients, ulcerative colitis, and other conditions, can worsen other health conditions, like high blood pressure, blood sugar problems, ulcers, and diabetes, and can also lead to withdrawal if a patient stops taking them suddenly.
• Insulin, if not taken as prescribed, can both increase or reduce a patient’s blood-sugar levels, leading to shock and other health complications.
• If a patient fails to take blood thinners correctly, a high dose that is too high can cause bruising, excessive bleeding, whereas a dose that is too low can cause clotting. Effectiveness of the drug can also be threatened when interacting with other medications.
• Blood pressure drugs can also, if the medication is taken erroneously, cause a spike in blood pressure, and an overdose can cause chest pain, dizziness, shortness of breath, a fast or abnormally slow heartbeat, and can also cause coma.
• Cancer drugs, when taken in error, can cause fever, nausea and vomiting, shortness of breath, diarrhea, cause confusion and fatigue, and when an overdose is taken, can even cause death.

Continue reading "Lack of Medication Adherence Can Cause Serious Medication Reactions and Injury " »

In a recent Maryland pharmacy error injury lawyer blog entry, our attorneys discussed automated hospital pharmacies the use robots instead of people for tasks that are traditionally manual—in an effort to eliminate medication errors that could cause patient harm or personal injury.

According to the Medical Center of the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF), a hospital that recently implemented an automated hospital pharmacy--the benefits of using an robots instead of people are:

• Robots will help take over the manual medication dispensing tasks traditionally performed by pharmacists and nurses, who will in turn have more time to work with physicians to decide what the best patient drug therapy is, and will have more time to monitor each patient for any clinical responses or adverse reactions to medicine.
• The new pharmacy will provide pharmacy students with a strong training ground in the safe medication distribution systems of the future.
• The pharmacy will also enable the center to study new forms of medication delivery in order to share this groundbreaking information with other hospitals all over the country.
• Out of the 350,000 doses prepared by the robo-pharmacy since 2010, there has not been a single medication error or pharmacy misfill.

According to UCSF, the automated medication dispensing system will allow pharmacists to use their expertise in pharmaceutical care to make sure that each patients receives medication therapy that is catered to their individual needs, in a safe and effective way.

Continue reading "Benefits of Robo Pharmacy Technology in Reducing Prescription Errors" »

In an effort to reduce pharmacy misfills and medication error, the Medical Center of the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF), has recently employed a series of pharmacy robots, according to recent technology news that our Baltimore-based pharmacy misfill attorneys have been following.

In the newly automated hospital pharmacy, UCSF has employed what they consider to be the most comprehensive robots on the market, to prepare and track medications and improve the safety of patients. According to UCSF, since the automated system took over in October 2010, there has not been a single error in the 350,000 medication doses prepared.

This newly automated pharmacy reportedly streamlines the delivery of medication from the prescription directly to the patient, making every step in the medication therapy process safe and effective--from deciding the best drug treatment to patient administration—in order to reduce medication error injury.

How the Robo-Pharmacy Technology works:

• The automated system reportedly prepares medications that are oral and injectable, including chemotherapy drugs that are toxic. The robots are also able to fill IV bags or syringes with medications.
• Once the computers receive a new electronic medication order from an UCSF physician and pharmacist, the robots pick the medication, package the drugs, and dispense doses of the pills that are individualized for each patient.
• The robots assemble medication doses into a thin plastic ring that contains a bar code with all of patients' medications for a period of 12 hours.
• In the fall of this year, all UCSF Medical Center nurses will start using bar code scanners that read patients’ medication data at their bedsides--a topic our attorneys have discussed in a recent Maryland pharmacy error injury blog--to verify that the patient is being treated with the correct medication.
• A robotic inventory management system also maintains all medication products, with pharmacy warehouses that provide both refrigerated and non-refrigerated drug and supply storage and retrieval.

Continue reading "UCSF Employs New Automated Pharmacy to Prevent Pharmacy Error" »

Our Baltimore-based pharmacy error injury attorneys have been following the recent and tragic news story surrounding a Massachusetts woman, who endured a hospital medication error during a routine hospital stay that reportedly led to her wrongful death.

According to the Boston Globe, Geraldine Oswald was hospitalized in November of last year to clear up an infection that had developed after breaking her shoulder. While staying in the hospital, she reportedly received too much Lepirudin, a blood-thinning drug used to prevent the formation of potentially dangerous blood clots. The medication overdose affected Oswald’s own blood clotting ability, leading to internal bleeding. While in the hospital’s care, Oswald reportedly hemorrhaged for 12 hours before her wrongful death—which the hospital later stated could have been preventable.

The family of Oswald recently stated that they plan to file a wrongful death lawsuit against Massachusetts General Hospital, two nurses and five doctors, claiming that Oswald was supposed to be treated for a common infection, and instead received a blood thinner that was 30 times too high in dosage, and proved to be lethal.

According to the hospital’s report, the on-duty nurse understood the dosage intended for Oswald, but made a medication error while administrating the dose into the I.V. pump. In a meeting with Oswald’s family members after her death, the hospital reportedly stated that the medical error was preventable.

Continue reading "Hospital Sued for Wrongful Death After Patient Dies from Drug Error" »

In a recent Baltimore pharmacy error injury blog, our attorneys discussed the prevalence of pharmacy misfills and prescription drug errors plaguing our nation, with over 1.5 million injuries medication-related events documented by an Institute of Medicine study.

According to a related study discussed by Good Housekeeping magazine, pharmacy errors occur in one out of every five prescriptions. Another study reportedly found that 18 percent of hospital patients are exposed to medication errors. When addressing the problem of pharmacy error and medication mistakes, it is important for the consumer to always check and make sure that the prescription given at the pharmacy is the exact medication prescribed by the doctor.

As our Maryland medication mistake lawyers discussed previously, taking the necessary steps to verify your prescription with the pharmacist before taking medication can prove to be an extremely valuable step in preventing medication error injury. A few pharmacy error prevention tips include:

When receiving a new prescription, always ask the doctor to write down the medical problem associated with the medication, as this could help prevent a pharmacy misfill. Also, when filling a prescription for the first time, it is important to check the prescription label carefully to verify the name, dosage and directions for usage. It is also important to form a relationship with the pharmacist, to discuss the medication directions, as well as any potential allergies or potential medication conflicts that could happen with any other current prescriptions or supplements.

Continue reading "Pharmacy Misfill and Medication Error Prevention" »