Ohio residents like you expect good care when you put your life in the hands of medical professionals. It is quite rare to find one who does intentional harm to their patients. However, negligence and malpractice crimes do still happen, even when unintentional.
In fact, medication and prescription errors make up a big number of medical malpractice issues in recent years. But what causes these errors to occur?
Sources of medication errors
Mayo Clinic focuses on common medication errors and what may cause them. They define medication errors as any mistake that happens in the prescription or dispensing of medications. When these errors cause you harm, they are preventable adverse drug events. Medication errors that happen without causing harm are potential adverse drug events.
Medication errors are always preventable. They stem from multiple sources, but some of the most common include:
- A lack of communication between your doctor and you
- Medical abbreviations or handwriting that are not easy to read
- Poor communication between your doctors
- Drug names that sound similar
- Medications that look similar
Dangers of prescription and dispensing
Errors can happen either at the prescription or dispensing levels. This means your doctor may prescribe a medication improperly. For example, they could prescribe one with known adverse side effects with medication you already take.
When errors occur on the dispensing level, this usually involves a pharmacist rather than your doctor. In this stage, a tired pharmacist may mistakenly give you the wrong medicine because the pills look similar or sound alike.
Regardless of the cause, proper care and consideration could have averted these drug events. This is why people in your situation often seek compensation for damages.
