Medication Errors in Nursing Homes

Oftentimes, people in nursing homes are affected by neglect and abuse. Sometimes that neglect and abuse leads to obvious injuries or even death, including things like falls, fractures, pressure sores, malnutrition, dehydration. A lesser understood cause of injuries and deaths that occurs as a result of neglect or medication errors. Medication errors can occur for a variety of reasons, including an order made by a doctor that’s not transcribed appropriately, a failure of the staff to give a medication that’s prescribed by a doctor, not having enough staff that is sufficiently trained and supervised to provide the medication, prescribing the wrong dosage of the medication, administering the drug outside of the time frame of the physician’s order, giving a medication to a nursing home resident that’s expired. Those are just some examples of many medication errors that occur as a result of neglect at nursing homes. It may not be readily apparent to a loved one why their resident is injured or in some cases hospitalized or even more extreme situation dies. Anytime that your loved one has an unexplained injury, hospitalization, or death, we would encourage you to contact an attorney to discuss that. Oftentimes, it takes a skilled attorney to carefully view a nursing home residence chart to identify any medication errors or failure on the part of the nursing home to give a medication that was prescribed by a doctor. If our investigation reveals that an injury or death was caused by the nursing home’s medication error, you may be entitled to compensation. Levin & Perconti has successfully resolved numerous cases involving neglect in the administration of medication to nursing home residents. Give us a call today, and we’d be happy to help.