Medication Error Malpractice: Incorrect Dosages Put Patient Safety At Risk

Dosing errors are much worse than simply taking a little too much or too little of a medication. They can cause short or long term damage, life-altering injuries, and in severe cases, even death. What’s worse, these types of errors are very common. The FDA receives thousands of such reports every year and an estimated 7,000 deaths* occur annually due to medication errors.

According to the National Coordinating Council for Medication Error Reporting and Prevention, a medication error is “any preventable event that may cause or lead to inappropriate medication use or patient harm while the medication is in the control of the health care professional, patient, or consumer.”

As a medical malpractice attorney who was worked with medication errors, I have seen these errors occur in hospitals, doctor’s clinics and offices, pharmacies, or even at home. Any time a patient is given an incorrect medication dosage or incorrect instructions for administering the medication it counts as a medication dosing error. Orlando pharmacies, physicians, and hospitals all have a responsibility to ensure patient safety by making certain that patients receive both the correct medication and the correct dosage of said medication.

How Does Medication Error Malpractice Occur?

Dosing errors can occur in several different ways. Human error, medication appearance changes, mislabeling, even something as simple as bad lighting or poor handwriting can all lead to medication dosing errors. Examples of dosing errors include:

• Being given the correct medicine but the wrong dosage per pill.
• Being given the correct medicine, but the wrong frequency for taking the medication.
• Incorrectly entered decimal points and zeroes.
• Incorrect dosage instructions.
• Pharmacy staff confuses metric units and dosing units.
• Being given the wrong medication due to drug name confusion.

Consequences Of Dosing Errors

Taking the incorrect dosage of a medication can have a wide range of consequences for patients, such as:

• Overdose
• Underdose
• Toxicity
• Poisoning
• Death

What Can Patients Do If They Have Suffered Because Of A Dosage Error?

Anyone who has suffered due to a dosing error has the right to protect him or herself from medication error malpractice. Florida courts allow an injured patient and their lawyer to bring lawsuits against pharmacies, doctors, nurses, hospitals, and clinics to hold the negligent party responsible for their mistakes.

If you have been injured, you can pursue compensation for those injuries with help from a Central Florida medication error attorney. Compensation can help ease the financial burden the injury has caused by covering lost wages, medical bills, pain and suffering, and more.