The decision to place an elderly loved one in a South Carolina nursing home for full-time care is never an easy one, especially if that individual requires daily medications. You may have concerns about nursing home medication errors and what might happen if your loved one receives the wrong medicines due to dispensing mistakes. Our experienced Greenville nursing home abuse attorneys at Jordan Law Center stand by to assist you with this type of malpractice and what you can do to fight it.
Types of Nursing Home Medication Errors
When medication errors occur in a South Carolina nursing home, the consequences can have far-reaching effects on your loved one. Many of these mistakes occur in understaffed care facilities and in those with employees who did not receive enough training.
Dosing errors
Any medication can cause serious problems when the dosage is incorrect, but this error can be particularly harmful to an older adult who may already live with health problems. When nursing home facilities keep poor dispensing records, this can result in a double dosage of a medication, causing seizures and possible organ failure.
Patient name errors
When a South Carolina nursing home cares for patients with similar or identical last names, nursing home medication errors can occur when carelessness causes the patients to receive the incorrect medications. This may lead to serious situations brought on by unexpected side effects of incorrect dispensation.
Employee distractions
Nursing home employees who dispense medications may become distracted by personal problems. Worrying about unrelated issues in their own life could cause an employee to make a serious error in the size of a dosage or skip a patient who requires a certain medication to prevent problems associated with chronic illnesses, such as Type 2 diabetes.
Failure to monitor medication expiration dates
Expired medicine loses its potency and no longer works as it should to treat illnesses in elderly patients. Liquid medications may grow bacteria that can harm your elderly loved one and lead to other medical issues.
Speaking to our nursing home abuse attorneys can provide you with peace of mind when you believe nursing home medication errors are occurring at your loved one’s South Carolina care home and led to their illness or death.
Why Nursing Home Medication Errors Happen
When nursing home medication mistakes occur, the most common reason is human error. Some happen at the administrative level, while others arise when dispensing medications on the floor.
Understaffed facilities
Some South Carolina nursing facilities lack the number of qualified and knowledgeable employees to care for their patients properly. Your elderly family member may wait too long for medication or receive the wrong dosage because nurses and certified nursing assistants must rush to care for everyone.
Overworked employees
Medication errors in nursing homes can occur when employees work long hours to cover shift gaps. Nurses and other staff who dispense medications and work the third shift may not get the rest they need to focus on this demanding job. Many spend hours on their feet, causing leg and back pain that might distract them as they walk from room to room.
Poor communication
The control and dispensing of medications at a South Carolina nursing home operate through a chain of command. Doctors order the required medications, shipping companies deliver them, and the facility stores and dispenses them.
Poor communication between any link in the chain can cause nursing home medication errors that could harm patients.
Illegible records
Medication errors often happen because records from a previous shift are not legible. Because many types of drugs have similar names, one misshapen letter could result in an accidental overdose.
Mismanagement of medical records
Poorly written or incomplete medical transcripts spell mayhem for any South Carolina nursing home. Allergic reactions can cause serious problems when your loved one receives the wrong medicine or suffers months of illness from side effects.
Types of Medication Error Injuries
The effects of nursing home medication errors on your family member could range from brief but damaging side effects to life-threatening injuries. The degree of the injury may depend on the type of medicine dispensed or the degree of its dosage.
Skin damage
Some medications can cause an adverse reaction in nursing home patients that includes severe rashes and skin lesions. Some of these side effects may result in scarring.
Intestinal damage
Receiving the incorrect medication can result in extreme intestinal distress. If your loved one suffers from a compromised immune system, this means months of slow healing and possibly a risky colostomy bag surgery.
Brain damage
Almost any drug used in South Carolina nursing facilities can cause an overdose or allergic reaction. Both problems may trigger a cardiac event, and brain damage could occur if your loved one experiences a loss of oxygen to the brain during emergency treatment.
Death
In some cases, nursing home medication errors result in death. The incorrect medication may cause direct or indirect harm, including:
- Death from an overdose of medication
- Death from an allergic reaction to the wrong drug
- Death from infection brought on by under-dosing medication
Our attorneys can review your wrongful death case and hold the responsible parties liable for the death of your elderly loved one.
Legal Liability and Nursing Home Medication Errors
It is not always simple to assign responsibility when nursing home medication errors occur. You may believe the employee dispensing the medication acted negligently and injured your loved one, but others may have also contributed to the error. In most cases, the employer of the negligent party is responsible for any medication errors that occur in a South Carolina nursing home.
Our attorneys will investigate the incident that injured your loved one and build a case based on evidence and knowledge of the law to hold everyone involved accountable.
Bring Us Your Nursing Home Neglect Case Today
When your loved one suffers a medication error injury in a South Carolina nursing home, you may have many questions about your legal options. Contact our attorneys at Jordan Law Center today and discover how they can assist you with nursing home medication errors.
