Personal Injury Attorney New Jersey – Prescription Errors: to avoid prescription medication errors, Doctors and nurses are taught to follow the five R’s of medication administration: Right patient, Right medication, Right dose, Rigth route, and Right time.
Unfortunately prescription medications errors cause injuries to more than a million people per year. The most common error is improper dosage, followed by wrong medication and wrong method of administration.
Short-staffed hospitals sometimes shift their nurses from one unit to another, increasing the odds of medication errors due to insufficient familiarity with a particular unit’s patients and their unique needs.
Other causes for error include a physician’s mistaken prescription, mistakes by pharmacists filling prescriptions, and mistakes in manufacturing and/or marketing the drugs.
If you’ve been the victim of a dangerous drug or prescription error, contact Patrick Amoresano, Personal Injury Attorney New Jersey, for a free consultation at 201-704-2280
Personal Injury Attorney New Jersey: More About Prescription Errors and Prevention
The Federal Food and Drug Administration includes a Center for Drug Evaluation and Research, and within that center is the Division of Medication Error Prevention and Analysis.
The role of the DMEPA is to review reports regarding all kinds of medication errors involving all sorts of potentially dangerous drugs marketed to human consumers – including prescription, generic, and over-the-counter products. In addition, it administers a program for medication error prevention program. This program is conducted by trained health professionals who review all reports of medication errors sent to a general clearinghouse called MedWatch. From these reports they try to determine the cause of the errors offer solutions which will reduce the risk of repeating such errors in the future.
In addition, the agency reviews product names and packaging design in advance of product approval to help prevent errors attributable to misleading or confusion labels or product information and specifications. It also works closely with other federal agencies to establish and enforce high standards for product making, packaging, and marketing in the industry.
According to the National Coordinating Council for Medication Error Reporting and Prevention, a medication error is –
“[A]ny preventable event that may cause or lead to inappropriate medication use or patient harm while the medication is in the control of the health care professional, patient, or consumer. Such events may be related to professional practice, health care products, procedures, and systems, including prescribing; order communication; product labeling, packaging, and nomenclature; compounding; dispensing; distribution; administration; education; monitoring; and use.”