San Bernardino Medication Errors Lawyer

Older adults who reside in nursing homes and assisted-living facilities in San Bernardino County and throughout Southern California are at high risk for certain types of injuries resulting from abuse and neglect. Although some forms of nursing home neglect are intentional, many are the result of negligence. In terms of medication errors, these types of serious mistakes frequently cause severe harm to residents, but they are not intentional. Accordingly, you might be wondering: can I still file a claim or seek a remedy for my loved one if the mistake was accidental?

To be clear, medication errors are a form of negligence, and it is certainly possible to hold a healthcare provider or a facility accountable when a medication mistake results in harm. An experienced San Bernardino County medication errors lawyer is here to assist you today with your case.

What counts as a medication error or medication mistake? In short, medication errors can include any mistake that relates to prescribing or filling a patient’s medications, interactions between a patient’s existing medications, or administration of a patient’s medication. The following are all common types of medication errors that happen in nursing homes and assisted-living facilities in San Bernardino County and throughout Southern California:

• Prescribing the wrong medication for the patient’s condition;
• Prescribing the incorrect dosage of the correct medication based on the patient’s condition or the patient’s individual needs or health history;
• Prescribing the correct medication and correct dosage but failing to take into account the patient’s current drug regimen and a dangerous interaction between drugs;
• Filling the wrong medication;
• Filling the wrong dosage of the correct medication;
• Providing the nursing home resident with incorrect instructions for taking the medication safely;
• Improperly administering the medication (which could include failing to administer the drug at a specified mealtime, for example, or failing to administer the drug intravenously at a set time); or
• Inaccurately recording the patient’s medical history and current prescriptions, which results in a physician or other prescribing health care provider making a mistake.

Various parties may be liable when these mistakes occur and result in an injury, including the nursing home or assisted-living facility, the prescribing health care provider, the pharmacist, an administering nurse or staff member, or a recordkeeping employee.

There are various reasons for medication mistakes in long-term care facilities in San Bernardino County, including nursing homes and assisted-living facilities, such as:

• Non-nursing staff members being tasked with administering medications;
• Healthcare providers who are not properly trained to work with elderly patients;
• Burnout, overworking, and understaffing; and
• Lack of reliable information about the resident’s medical history and current prescription medications.

According to the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ), medication mistakes are especially common in nursing homes and other types of long-term care facilities, and these errors most often occur during the administration of medications.

Do you have concerns about an elderly loved one’s injuries in a nursing home? Do you suspect your loved one’s injuries resulted from a medication mistake? Contact the Southern California Nursing Home Law Group for more information about filing a medication error claim in a nursing home or assisted-living facility in San Bernardino County.