Every year 1.5 million people are injured or made sick by medication mistakes and 100,000 of those people die. Those numbers include mistakes made by physicians and other medical caregivers, pharmacists, and the patients to whom the medications are prescribed. With that high an incidence of medication mistakes, you can deduce that there are a huge number in Atlanta and throughout Georgia.
It is the responsibility of the physician to ensure that the right meds in the right dosage are prescribed. The pharmacist and others administering the medication also have an essential responsibility to ensure patient safety. Even if the medications are to be self administered by the patient, it’s up to the physician, pharmacist and other caregivers to ensure that the patient is aware of the proper use of the medications, including side effects, food and drug interactions and other factors.
There are some common mistakes that you should be aware of that can result in physical harm or death. Among those most common are: Double dosing (the patient takes a name brand and generic of the same drug at the same time); taking prescription meds and over the counter drugs without assessing and informing the patient how they interact; negative interactions between medications and diet; taking medication not safe for your age; confusing two medications with similar names; getting the dosage wrong. These and other medication mistakes can have serious and even deadly effects.
If you or a loved one has suffered due to these or other mistakes please contact Atlanta, Georgia area medical malpractice attorneys, Robbins Law, PC today.