The American Society of Hospital Pharmacists has released a study outlining what all nurses, doctors, and pharmacists should do when a medication error occurs.Here are just a few things the ASHP recommends the at-fault party should do after a harmful prescription drug mistake:
- Provide any necessary corrective treatment, including rehabilitative and supportive therapy
- Document the error, including the specific circumstances and the reason the error occurred, as soon as possible.
- Warn physicians, nurses, and pharmacy managers if the error was caused by a potentially unknown factor, such as an interaction with another drug.
- Investigate the incident thoroughly, including determining the cause, location, persons involved, details of the case and any other pertinent information. how the incident occurred, and who was involved. All-important evidence, such as patient labels or drug packaging, should be kept for examination.
- Review of the incident should fall to the superiors: the board or the hospital or pharmacy to determine the exact cause of the accident and what further steps should be taken to correct it.
- Identify The staff members who were involved in the error should meet with the investigation team to learn how best to prevent the error in the future, including implementing a new system or fixing a breakdown in the current procedures.
- Report all medication errors to a national monitoring program so that pharmacists, physicians, nurses, and patients can all benefit from the experience of the error and avoid a similar error in the future.
Our pharmacy error injury lawyersrealize that many hospitals and pharmacies will not change their methods unless something is at stake. By pursuing a case against the person who caused your injury, you can get compensation for your suffering and prevent the accident from happening again.
To get a FREE, one-on-one consultation with a prescription drug error attorney, call Kennedy Hodges today at (888) 526-7616 or fill out the contact form on this page.
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