Los Angeles Medication Errors Lawyer

Older adults who live in nursing homes and assisted living facilities are frequently at risk of serious harm caused by medication errors. What are medication mistakes, and how do they happen? Medication errors can take many different forms, and various parties can be liable for injuries that occur, including the nursing home or assisted living facility where the mistake happened.

If you have an elderly loved one in a nursing home or assisted-living facility who suffered harm as a result of being prescribed or administered the wrong medication or drug in the wrong dosage, or being prescribed or administered a medication that had a harmful interaction with a drug, the patient was already taking, it is essential to seek legal help. An experienced Los Angeles County medication error lawyer can assess your case today.

Medication errors in Los Angeles take many different forms, including but not limited to the following:

• Prescribing the wrong drug for the condition.
• Prescribing the wrong dosage of the correct drug.
• Prescribing a drug that has harmful interactions with the existing drug regimen.
• Administering the wrong drug.
• Administering the incorrect dosage of the correct drug.
• Administering a drug that has harmful interactions with the patient’s existing medications.
• Improperly administering a medication.
• Filling the wrong drug; or
• Filling the wrong dosage of the correct drug.

Who is Liable for Los Angeles County Medication Errors?

When a medication error occurs at a nursing home or assisted-living facility in Los Angeles County or elsewhere in Southern California, various parties may be liable. In some cases, it may be possible to hold more than one party accountable. Liability will depend on the facts of the case, but liable parties may include:

• Facility, such as a nursing home or assisted-living facility where the error occurred;
• Prescribing physicians, physicians’ assistant, or nurse practitioner;
• Health care provider administering the medication; or
• Pharmacist responsible for filling the medication.

Consulting with an experienced Los Angeles medication error lawyer today can help clarify the liability theory and let you know if you have a viable case.

According to a study in BMC Nursing, medication errors have been increasing in nursing homes due in large part to medication mismanagement. To be clear, errors that occur in medication management are “a result of human shortcomings and deficiencies in working conditions such as the lack of safe tools to facilitate and secure medication management.”

In addition, the study reports that there are known issues concerning “the delegation of drug administration to non-licensed staff, the abandonment of routines, carelessness, a lack of knowledge, inadequate verbal communication between colleagues, and a lack of understanding of the difficulties involved in handling the drugs.” The Mayo Clinic highlights that polypharmacy — or situations where patients are on five or more medications — can increase risks of errors, yet those errors are nonetheless a result of negligence.

Medication errors should never happen in nursing homes or assisted-living facilities, and families should not have to worry that an elderly loved one will sustain an injury or develop a medical problem resulting from a medication mistake. If you have any concerns about a loved one and have questions about whether a medication error could be to blame, it is important to seek advice from one of our lawyers specializing he Los Angeles County medication error cases as soon as you can. Contact the Southern California Nursing Home Law Group for more information.