Personal Injury Law

Talk to your doctor, pharmacist to prevent prescription errors among the elderly

By Chuck Boyk

The Journal of Hospital Medicine reported that 49 percent of almost 500,000 hospital patients 65 and older have been prescribed one or more drugs known to be unsafe to older patients.

The Institute of Medicine reported that at least 1.5 million Americans are sickened, injured or killed each year by errors in prescribing, dispensing and taking medications.

Prescription errors can be characterized as any of the following:

• Prescribing the wrong medication
• Dispensing the wrong medication
• Prescribing the right medication in the wrong dosage
• Prescribing a medication that may have severe interactions with other medications the patient is currently taking
• Filling the wrong prescription or dosage
• Giving patients the wrong instructions for taking the medications
• Neglecting to monitor the patient's response to drugs
• Mislabeling the drug placed in a bottle and misuse of generic drugs

Our Ohio medical malpractice lawyers see the devastating that effects that prescription errors can have on a family. Often times these fatal prescription errors are made during the care of an elderly or disabled person.

Our Ohio prescription error attorneys urge patients and caretakers to be extra cautious before taking any type of medication, whether it is over-the-counter or prescription, in order to prevent potentially fatal prescription errors. Talk to you doctor and your pharmacist about your medications, and make sure that the paperwork matches what you discussed.

Read all labels and make sure that the bottles have your name and contact information on it. Also make sure that your pharmacy is aware of all drugs that you are taking, in order to prevent adverse side effects or overdose.

Full post as published by Sandusky Personal Injury Lawyer on January 02, 2009 (boomark / email).