A shortage of commonly-used drugs is impacting care in hospitals nationwide. Reports released by the American Hospital Association and the American Journal of Health-System Pharmacists indicate a chronic shortage of crucial medications, with over 800 AHA-member hospitals reporting shortages. Shortages can appear quite suddenly in a hospital environment, with the…
Pharmacy and medication errors in hospitals and elsewhere in the health care system create substantial risks to patients, along with errors in diagnosis and treatment, equipment problems, and others. State governments often work to promote and improve protection of patient safety in health care. Oregon, as an example, has taken…
A study recently published in the New England Journal of Medicine has expanded on the links between diethylstilbestrol (DES) and many forms of cancer. Researchers looked at 6,500 women, 4,600 of whom received exposure to DES while in the womb. They found substantially higher risk of cancer, including breast cancer…
A new machine at the University of California at San Francisco may permanently change the way pharmacies operate, hopefully to the benefit of patient safety. The machine is a “robot pharmacist” named PillPick, and it does much of the work ordinarily performed by pharmacists and pharmacy technicians. So far, as…
Several recent events have illustrated the importance of carefully reviewing prescriptions and medications at pharmacies. Errors in filling prescriptions, either by giving a person the wrong medication entirely or giving a person someone else’s medication, can have serious and even fatal consequences. Patients can take steps to protect themselves from…
A patient at Alta Bates Summit Medical Center in San Francisco, California died over the weekend, allegedly due to an incorrect medication dosage from a replacement nurse. About 23,000 nurses across California went on strike on Thursday, September 22, 2011 due to a dispute between the nurses’ union and the…
A system developed at Johns Hopkins Medicine in Baltimore, Maryland intends to prevent accidents before they happen by encouraging clinicians to report situations that might lead to dangerous or even life-threatening incidents for patients. Known as the “Good Catch Awards,” the program distributed 27 honors in its first two years…
A report from the Institute of Medicine finds that hospital patients in the U.S., on average, experience one medication error per day. Errors may include incorrect dosages, administering a drug with the incorrect method, or administering the wrong drug altogether. Some errors involve prescription of a drug with incomplete information…
A New York federal judge is allowing a lawsuit over the osteoporosis drug Fosamax to go forward, but with limitations. Judge John Keenan will allow plaintiff Linda Secrest to pursue her claim against Merck & Co., but she will not be able to claim punitive damages or to argue that…
Our Prince George’s County, Maryland pharmacy error lawyer blog recently reported on the important role communication plays between patients and their healthcare providers—in order to reduce the risk of medication errors or pharmacy misfills, and to promote the safe and effective use of drug therapy. Every year, 1.5 million Americans…