Medical Center Reduces Pharmacy Errors

by Kevin Duffan

Kevin is a Virginia injury attorney who handles car accidents, medical malpractice, wrongful death, etc.

1/18/2012
Kevin Duffan
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Medical Center Reduces Dosing and Medication Errors

A medical center in Minneapolis, Minnesota (MN), has reduced medical errors by simply making sure that pharmacists participated in the patient discharge process.

Officials decided to seriously look at pharmacy errors after they spot-checked perscriptions for 37 patients sent home from the hospital over a 3-months and found errors in 92 percent of the medication records. Physicians either prescribed a wrong dose, prescribed duplicate medications or omitted needed medications.

To address this problem, the medical center assigned pharmacists to review all discharge orders. After a new spot-check, the medical center discovered that the error rate had gone down to zero. More importantly, the 30-day readmission rate, or the number of patients bouncing back to the medical center, was cut in half.

As a personal injury lawyer in Virginia (VA), I know it takes a lot of courage to publically admit an error and find a workable solution. Some medical centers would rather ignore the problem and hope that nothing serious happens. Unfortunately, it only takes one error to cause a serious injury, or even death.

Attorenys at my firm had the opportunity to represent a client who was given the wrong dosage of a medication and suffered a massive rectal hemorrhage. The man required three hospitalizations to resolve the injury, and we were able to help him receive $200,000 so he could move on with his life without being financially crippled by medical bills.

If you have been harmed because of a mistake made by a pharmacist or doctor, please talk to an attorney. You have options and people available who want to help.

AC

Category: Medical Malpractice/Doctor Mistakes

Labels: medical malpractice personal injury personal injury law firm in Virginia personal injury lawyer in Virginia pharmacy errors

About the Editors: Shapiro, Lewis & Appleton is a Virginia injury law firm whose attorneys focus on personal injury and accident law and have extensive experience handling medical malpractice and doctor mistake cases. Please take a few moments to review our medical malpractice case results. We have offices in Virginia Beach and Hampton, VA, but we're ready to come to you anywhere in Virginia, including Norfolk, Portsmouth, Chesapeake, Newport News and Suffolk, VA, if you've been seriously hurt by the carelessness of a doctor, surgeon, nurse or pharmacist.

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