Scenarios One and Two: A) In either scenario, did the physician commit medical negligence? - Jack’s case is an example of medical negligence. The physician that prescribed the prescription should have done a full physical and medical exam on the patient. Jack’s physician failed to ask if he was allergic to any medication. Before prescribing any medication one of the first questions should be what or if they are allergic to anything. Jack faced several health complications such as difficult breathing, turning red, and falling to the floor. He went into anaphylactic shock due to the fatal allergic reaction. The last encounter with Sulfa, Jack developed a rash due to the allergic reaction. Health professionals are required to undergo training …show more content…
The physician asked prior to administrating the medication if Jack was allergic. He took protocol before prescribing it. Additional steps could have been set in place, but the physician took a step further in the second scenario vs. the first one. Medical negligence is when there is an error in the diagnosis, treatment, or management. In this case the allergic reaction to Sulfa was yet to be determined to be an allergy. The physician went about the proper questioning before writing the prescription. Medical professionals are only human, and errors are always possible when it comes to a new prescription. People respond to different medications differently, so if the allergy is not prior determined the side effects are not always known. If Jack had said yes to have an allergic reaction to Sulfa that could be medical negligence in prescription drug error, but due to saying he had not had one the side effects would be unknown. When prescribing the medication no known rash and skin irritation had been associated with contact with the medication or anaphylactic shock previously. Allergies occur as a result of a hypersensitive immune system and many types of substances can trigger a …show more content…
Some people may develop a rash or more severe reaction, while others may have no adverse reaction at all. In the first scenario the physician should have investigated prior reactions and allergies before prescribing the mediation. He failed to question any allergies before writing the prescription. Additional steps could have been asking a simple question and offering an alternative medication due to the allergy. In the second scenario testing could have been done in order to see if there was any reactions to the medication before prescribing it in a prescription. If there were no alternative medication available and it was essential, a desensitization procedure to the mediation may be recommended. It involves gradually intruding the medication in small does until the therapeutic dose is achieved. Documenting these types of problems is critical to the safety of patients and clinical practice. Health professionals need to document these findings to help inform other medical health professionals of the potential serious adverse events of the
Medical malpractice has been a controversial issue in the healthcare setting for centuries. Apparently, there are laws to protect patients’ from medical mistakes and errors that are the result of negligence. After researching various laws and medical liability cases based on allegations of negligence, this paper will discuss and provide details on the medical malpractice case of Dorrence Kenneth versus Charleston Community Memorial Hospital. The case analysis will briefly explain information from the beginning to end, including: laws that were violated, codes in the healthcare industry that were breached by the physician and Charlesto...
Statistics show that between 1979 and 2006, there were more than sixty two million deaths investigated and of those, 244,388 were caused by a hospital medication error (Cox, 2010). The following information highlights medication errors made in three facilities in the United States with the drug Heparin. The focus of this paper will be on how the medication errors were made, what could have prevented them, the legal ramifications from the mistakes, and changes that were implemented to eliminate potential future risks.
Lucian L. Leape Conducted a study in 1995 on “health policy analyst at the Harvard School of Public Health, found that 6.5 percent of patients at two teaching hospitals in Boston had been injured by their medicines, and one-third of these cases involved mistakes” (Stolberg, 1999). Due to this Study the F.D.A. official were convinced that the danger of prescription cascade is growing which prompted them to release a 150-page report which was made public, that called for pharmacists, doctors, hospitals and drug companies to work together to create ' 'a new framework ' ' for cutting down on overlapping prescription that have a high risk of causing a cascade. Explicit warning pamphlets were also created according to the new guidelines which requires manufacturers to release side effect possibilities in high risk drugs. (Stolberg, 1999)
The tort involved in this case is that of negligence, which is defined as the breach of an individual’s duty to take reasonable care in situations where damage has occurred to another person or organisation (Legal Services Commission, 2013).
There cannot be other confounding factors that may have caused the damage. The final evidence that has to be provided is the proof of damages. There is no minimum dollar amount that is needed to make a case, but there must be evidence of sufficient damage to show that the patient suffered from the error made by the pharmacist. If the plaintiff’s damages are minor, then the case may be thrown out in court since the damages are not severe enough to make a compelling case.
I find the medication commercials to be interesting. All of them claim to work miracles on whatever may be ailing you, whether it is eczema or arthritis. Yet all of the come with a whole host of side effects that sound like they would be worse than dealing with the actual ailment. For example the medication afrezza which is an inhaled insulin for diabetes states at the end of their commercial not to take afrezza if you are allergic to afrezza, after this statement they go into detail on side effects that may occur is you are allergic to afrezza. In my head I am always hoping that there is a way to test the patient to make sure they are indeed not allergic before they administer the said drug, and that they do not have to take a chance on the
In all of these situations listed here, the doctor was negligent, and this forms the cornerstone of any malpractice lawsuit.
One must evaluate all parties involved. It can be argued that do to the lack of documentation or communication of the physician this was an act of negligence. A jury can decide that lack of documentation is sufficient evidence in finding a physician guilty of negligence (Pozgar, 2009). When we look at the role of the defendant which was the pharmacist not the physician his duty goes above just filling prescriptions, the duty of a pharmacist is to monitor the patient’s medication. In order for him to have achieved this properly he should have made sure he contacted the physician for further information even if the physician failed to communicate with him. Because of his actions the plaintiff is holding the pharmacist accountable for his treatment and that is not where all of the blame should be consumed. The argument that can be made for the pharmacist is that the pharmacist acted within his scope of practice and left everything to the physician. This situation can easily be construed as, if the physician needed further medications or if there were any adverse reaction then he would have contacted the pharmacist. Once again the prosecutor may argue that the pharmacist had a duty to follow up on any treatment that he provided to a patient. These arguments would be the most persuasive. These are the key elements in determining the case being argued. For example the pharmacist not following up with the patient’s physician may be
The issues are: (1) whether Dr. Stotler wrote an ambiguous order that led to the administration of fatal dose of Lanoxin and (2) whether negligence occurred as a result of not following standard of care by the nurse who misinterpreted dosage administration directions of the medication leading to fatal
Polypharmacy among the elderly is a growing concern in U.S. healthcare system. Elderly who have comorbities and take multiple medications are at a higher risk for potential adverse drug reactions. Elderly who take over-the-counter medications, herbs, and supplements without consulting their physician are at risk for adverse reactions associated with polypharmacy. Polypharmacy can result from patients having multiple prescribers and pharmacies, and patients who continue to take medications which have been discontinued by the physician. There is a great need for nursing interventions regarding polypharmacy, including medication reviews also known as “brown bag”. As nurses obtain history data and conduct a patient assessment, it is essential to review the patients’ medications and ask open-ended questions regarding all types of medications in which the patient is taking. In addition, the patient assessment is also an opportunity for the nurse to inquire about any adverse reactions the patient may be experiencing resulting from medications. Nurses are in a unique position to provide early detection and intervention for potentially inappropriate medications and its associated adverse drug reactions.
Administrating medications is an important part of my job as a nurse. Usually, I only have five or six patients on my shift however, we were short staffed due to an emergency another nurse had. I had to add a few more patients to my workload. My colleagues and the patient’s family members distracted me. “Distractions are a major cause of error in healthcare, especially during the process of medication delivery” (Hohenhaus & Powell, 2008, p. 108). The drug I omitted was not one that would cause harm or put the patient’s life in jeopardy, it was an antacid medication, calcium carbonate. This is why I felt justified in omitting the drug.
Though, medical- errors are frequent in hospitals; most of them are manageable, but they have proved to be costly. According to a study, almost 2% of patients admitted experienced a preventable drug event. This has led to an increase in the costs of the hospital, accounting to about $4700 per admission. When these findings are generalized, the hospital costs alone for the preventable adverse drug reactions among the inpatients, for the entire nation accounts to about $2 billion. There have been a number of studies, that prove the errors in prescribing medications by pharmacist also account for article. Most of these studies focus mainly on medical errors occurring at the hospitals and therefore there is a lack of information regarding similar studies in a different
Most people describe their pharmacist as a white, middle aged bald man standing behind a desk counting pills 9 to 5 five days a week. However, most people fail to realize that the new and upcoming pharmacists are being equipped with the knowledge in college to be able to come out from behind their desk. These pharmacists are getting on the floor to recommend medicines based on their own specialization of drug effects, dosage and content and physical symptom analysis. According the Dan Brony in his article "Causes of Prescribing Errors in Hospital Inpatients: A Prospective Study" with many chronic conditions like asthma and migraine headaches are under diagnosed and not medicated properly, there is a need for pharmacists to use the skill set they have and specialization is drug knowledge, the modern pharmacists is taking on more roles and able to give accurate medication recommendations. Forbes Magazine reports that the Federal Register says “some drug products that would otherwise require a prescription could be approved as nonprescription drug products with some type of pharmacist intervention as their condition of safe use”.
Medication errors are costly, not only to the healthcare facilities, but also the patients and families as well. For this reason, it has become of great importance for healthcare facilities to prevent these errors. It is estimated that approximately $3.5 billion is spent on drug related injuries occurring in hospitals alone (MedLaw, 2006). This price includes not only the cost of treatment after the fact, but also the cos t of the incorrect medication used for administration. Regarding the costliness to patients and their families, patient injury or death may occur as a result of a medication error. This may be due to an incorrect drug or perhaps an incorrect dose being administered. The possibility of the patient having an allergy to this incorrect drug administration could also further cause damage as well.
I will and am comfortable enough to report such medical errors as a patient or as a family member of a patient. I believe that safety procedures, protocols and even lapses in judgement can be a cause for a medical mistake, but for that mistake to cause an adverse or dire reaction for a patient without implementing a correctional procedure, I do not agree with. For example (and the is by far the least, but still made me extremely ill), I have Celiac disease. When you are admitted to the hospital, the same hospital that diagnosed you two years prior, you expect them to understand what disease you have and your reactions to in my case gluten. I was admitted with extremely high liver enzymes and vomiting bile. I am very strict with my diet gluten makes me very ill, very quickly. The doctors prescribed a medication containing gluten, the food from cafeteria was contaminated with gluten (unless it was raw fruit, which i wasn’t allowed). I tried explaining why I was getting more symptoms and getting sicker, when finally I got a nurse that took the time to read my chart to me. I was scanned in that I had Celiac not highlighted anywhere, once they changed medication and corrected foods, original symptoms were the only ones left. Which left me with a bile duct obstruction and four weeks in the hospital. If they had listed to me, chart had been correctly noted the obstruction could have been found and fixed within the first week. Their first mistake was not checking my chart properly when I told them I had Celiac, second mistake was hospital not offering dietary meals to cover gluten free