Medication errors are one of the nation's leading causes of death. And many experts believe that for every reported medication error, there are many more that patients may never know about. In fact, almost all of our medication error cases involve preventable medication errors that occur at retail pharmacies or health care facilities such as hospitals and nursing homes.

In almost every instance, medication errors involve human errors. When a medication error happens it is normally because a health care practitioner failed to ensure that the right patient received the right drug in the correct dosage through proper administration. Other contributing factors include:

• Environmental Distractions - increasing demands upon nurses and/or pharmacists, work interruptions such as high noise levels, speakers, and ringing telephones
• Staffing Issues - too few employees many of whom may not be properly trained or supervised
• Administration Breakdowns - policies, procedures and protocols designed to reduce human error and promote patient safety are not followed

The Most Common Medication Errors

Our case experience at Horn Law support other expert opinions that the most common medication errors include:

• Confusing similar drug names
• Administering the wrong dosage
• Failing to account for a patient's history of allergies
• Miscommunication between doctors, nurses, and pharmacists
• Failing to check patient identification to ensure a drug is administered to the right patient

When Horn Law takes on a case involving a medication or pharmacy error, we dedicate our full professional resources to obtain fair and full compensation for our client and their family. Beyond the good we can accomplish for our client, a successful case will work to improve the overall delivery of health care so that the public will be best served. This makes a big difference to our clients.