Medication errors are preventable incidents that can potentially lead to inappropriate medication use or other kids of patient harm. These errors can occur at any point in the medication process from prescribing to dispensing to administration.
Understanding the common causes of medication errors can help patients more effectively identify when harm they’ve experienced may be legally actionable.
Prescription and ordering problems
Many medication errors originate during the prescribing phase when healthcare providers select medications for patients. Poor handwriting on paper prescriptions remains a significant issue, making it difficult for pharmacists to accurately interpret medication orders. Sound alike drugs with similar names frequently cause confusion, such as hydroxyzine and hydralazine. Incomplete patient information regarding allergies, other medications or medical conditions often leads to inappropriate prescribing decisions. Additionally, complex medication regimens with unusual dosing schedules increase error risk, particularly for elderly patients.
Dispensing and pharmacy related issues
Pharmacies serve as a critical safety checkpoint, but errors still occur during medication dispensing. Look alike packaging between different medications leads to selection errors. Misinterpretation of abbreviations, decimal points and units creates dosage errors, such as mistaking “U” for units as a zero. Environmental factors like poor lighting, distractions and staff fatigue significantly impact error rates in busy pharmacy settings.
Administration and monitoring failures
Medication administration represents the final opportunity to catch errors before reaching patients. Failure to verify patient identity before medication administration remains surprisingly common. Incorrect administration techniques, such as giving oral suspensions intravenously, can have fatal consequences. Timing errors occur when medications requiring specific dosing intervals are given too close together. Monitoring failures happen when healthcare providers miss signs of adverse reactions or fail to check necessary lab values.
Communication breakdowns
Poor communication between healthcare providers creates dangerous gaps in medication management. Inadequate patient education about proper medication use leads to home administration errors. Miscommunication during care transitions frequently results in medication discrepancies. Failure to reconcile medication lists when patients move between healthcare settings creates duplicate therapies or unintended medication discontinuations.
Seeking legal guidance after a serious medication error can help injured patients understand their options for addressing harm caused by these preventable mistakes.
