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Related Links: Reducing Medication Errors Requires Safer Hospital Practices Which Party Can I Hold Liable for Pharmacy Malpractice? |
Doctors, nurses, and pharmacists are all parties that could be blamed when medication mistakes go wrong and patients suffer injuries or death. Sadly, most medication mistakes are preventable errors that occur because someone —or several parties—failed to do their job in a safe manner.
Recently, we wrote about a patient’s death that was blamed on a doctor’s bad handwriting. While it may appear at first glance that the doctor involved was the only one liable for this fatal medication overdose, a jury found that other parties were also partially responsible. This is because although the doctor first wrote a prescription for 10 millimoles of potassium and then wrote over the “1” with a “2” to change the prescription to 20 millimoles, the nurse and pharmacist involved interpreted the prescription for 120 millimoles—a fatal overdose.
In this case, a doctor, nurse, and pharmacist all shared some blame for the patient’s death. Sadly, incidents like this occur every year throughout this nation due to:
- Failure to focus
- Distraction
- Failure to double check and call a physician if something seems off or wrong
- Series of mistakes made by many parties
- Failure to put patients’ safety first
When more than one party is responsible for a patient’s injuries or death, a patient or family of the deceased could seek damages from all parties involved. Typically, the parties will attempt to settle, or a case could go all the way to trial where a jury will decide the percentage of responsibility each defendant is liable for.
If you believe there were many different parties involved in your medication error-related injuries, you should contact a skilled medication error attorney to determine who is liable for your injuries. Call Kennedy Hodges for a free consultation at 888-526-7616 today.