Liability for Medication Errors

Over the past decade, the number of serious and life-threatening injuries caused by hospital medication mistakes has increased substantially.  According to a 2006 report by the National Academies of Science’s Institute of Medicine, there are about 1.5 million medication errors every year which result in injuries. These mistakes are largely preventable and could be caused by a doctor prescribing the medication incorrectly, the pharmacy filling the wrong dosage or by nurses dispensing a different patient’s drugs.

The risk of medication errors exists in hospitals, nursing homes and retail pharmacies.  The most common medication errors include nurses administering the wrong medications or wrong dose in a intravenous drip, physicians prescribing drugs that could cause dangerous interaction with patients' other medications and pharmacists dispensing 100-milligram tablets when 50-milligram tablets were prescribed, according to the report.  Confusing drug labels and packaging further contribute medication-error injury and death.

If you or someone in your family has been harmed by medication errors, including prescribing the wrong medication or administering the wrong dose, suffering severe drug side effects, contact the Law Offices of Patrick J. Filan LLC.  We have nearly 30 years of experience advocating for patients who have been injured by medication errors and dangerous medications.