5 Things To Look At When Analyzing A Nursing Home Medication Errors Case
Many nursing home residents take multiple medications on a long-term basis for a variety of conditions. Often, the medication plays a serious roll in the treatment of the nursing home resident. Medications are ordered by the patient’s doctor and are to be given to the resident by a nurse as directed by the doctor. It is inappropriate for anyone other than a licensed nurse to administer medications to the patient.
Evaluating a nursing home medication errors case
Of course there are many different things that are important to look at when deciding if there has been a medication error. As experienced Chicago nursing home lawyers, the first thing we look at is if the person administering the medication is a licensed nursed and if they followed their training.
To avoid medication errors, nurses are trained to check 5 things before giving medication to a patient:
- Is this the right patient?
- Is this the right medication?
- Is this the right dosage?
- Is this the right means (i.e., pill, liquid, etc.)?
- Is this the right time?
While medication errors in any of those “5 checks” can have devastating consequences for the health and well-being of an elderly nursing home resident, the most common medication errors involve fault in patient identity, medication, and dosage. This is because nurses are not always familiar with the residents they see in a nursing home setting. But there are ways to help prevent these types of medication errors from happening. For example, many nursing homes have photographs of each resident on the tray in the medication cart corresponding to that resident so the nurse administering the medication can match the patient by their face.
Medication Interactions
In addition to concerns about medication errors when giving the medications to patients, nursing home residents are also at risk of harm through medication interactions. When residents are taking several medications, including medications ordered by more than one doctor, there is a chance that the drugs will interact in a way that can cause harm to the resident.To prevent medication interactions:
- Nursing homes must have a monthly review by a pharmacist of each resident’s medication regimen.
- If the pharmacist recognizes that the medications the resident is taking have the potential for harm, he must alert the patient’s physician so that the medication regimen can be modified.
- The failure of the pharmacist to perform a proper review can be the basis of a pharmacist malpractice case as well.
Medication errors can have serious consequences for nursing home residents, often requiring extensive hospital care or even resulting in the wrongful death of the nursing home resident. As experienced Chicago nursing home lawyers, we know that one of the first places to start analyzing a nursing home medication error case is in the five questions above.
If you feel that your loved one is or has been the victim of nursing home abuse or neglect, file an Illinois nursing home complaint here.