Syracuse Medical Malpractice Attorney

Medication Errors – Illegible Prescriptions

Generally speaking, medical malpractice is not limited to one particular field or practice of medicine.  Malpractice can take place in any area in which a medical mistake or a form of medical negligence occurs and a patient is harmed or ultimately dies as a result of it.  Nonetheless, there are a few major areas within the medical field that tend to have a greater occurrence of medical malpractice cases, one of which concerns medication errors and illegible prescriptions.

There are a host of people who can be found liable for making prescription drug mistakes, some of whom include doctors, nurses, pharmacists, medical technicians, and prescription drug companies, manufacturers and marketers.  If you think that you may have been the victim of a medication error, you should consider speaking with a knowledgeable Syracuse medical malpractice attorney who can help you determine whether or not you have been subjected to some form of medical malpractice.

Not surprisingly, one of the most common causes of medication errors stems from illegible prescriptions or the prescribing doctor’s use of abbreviations on the prescriptions.  You should know that the pharmacists who fill those prescriptions are required to call the doctor before distributing medications pursuant to a prescription that they can’t read.

There are a variety of reasons for medication errors, including distracting work environments and the similarity in drug names.  Without a doubt, most pharmacists are quite busy; unfortunately, it is easy for them to substitute the wrong drug for one that has a similar name when reading an illegible prescription.  There’s an abundance of drugs that look alike and sound alike.

Any well-versed Syracuse medical malpractice attorney will tell you that medical errors that end in serious injury or even death is a health practitioner’s worst nightmare, and even with a person’s best efforts, some errors are to be expected.  Even so, doctors and pharmacists need to take the proper steps in order to reduce the occurrence of errors, and develop systems and policies that will improve patient safety overall.

There have been a number of recommendations made that could possibly put an end to medication errors that are due to illegible handwriting, one of which is to eliminate handwritten prescriptions altogether and switch to some sort of electronic prescription system so as to avoid the problems associated with illegible or ambiguous handwriting.

If you need a Syracuse medical malpractice attorney, please call John Dadow at 315-472-9700 for a free consultation.