Patient Safety

WHO Claims Hospitals Are More Dangerous Than Airline Travel

August 18, 2011 | Lebowitz & Mzhen

According to a recent report in Medical News Today that our Baltimore medical error injury attorneys have been following, Professor Sir Liam Donaldson has been appointed as the new Envoy for Patient Safety for the World Health Organization (WHO). Donaldson recently stated, in an effort to highlight the fact that healthcare safety around the world needs to be improved, that going to the hospital is far more dangerous than flying on an airplane, as the WHO reports that millions of people die annually from medical errors associated with healthcare—far more, according to Donaldson, than accidents on planes.

In his striking comparison, Donaldson claimed that if a patient entered the hospital he would have a 1 in 10 chance of experiencing a medical error, with the chances of wrongful death due to medical error being 1 in 300. Donaldson then stated that in comparison, the risk of dying in a plane crash is far less—approximately 1 in 10 million.

Donaldson reportedly stated that in an effort to reduce the growing number of hospital related infections resulting in patient injury or harm that happen every year, patients need to ask questions and make sure that hospitals maintain the basic hygiene standards and conform to the WHO’s healthcare checklist to prevent medical error or patient illness or injury during surgical procedures.

According to the WHO statistics, 7 in 100 patients in the hospitals throughout developed countries experience infections linked to healthcare, whereas in developing countries this number increases to 10 patients in every 100. The risk of infection is directly tied to the length of time a patient stays in the hospital’s intensive care unit. The WHO figures show that risk of infection is lower in the United States than in Europe, but the death from hospital-acquired infection is higher. In the United States, 1.7 million hospital acquired infections reportedly happen every year, resulting in 100,000 deaths, and in Europe, 4.5 million hospital acquired infections happen every year, resulting in around 37,000 deaths.

The Benefits and Problems of Electronic Medical Records Systems

August 10, 2011 | Lebowitz & Mzhen

In a recent Baltimore County pharmacy misfill injury blog, our attorneys discussed a tragic medical error that caused the death of an premature infant, after a pharmacy technician accidentally entered the wrong information into the computer, causing the intravenous solution prepared buy an automated machine to contain a lethal dose of sodium chloride. This pharmacy error has reportedly brought the issue of electronic medical health records safety concerns back into the forefront of patient safety.

As our attorneys have reported in a related Hartford County medication error injury blog, the medical industry is shifting toward electronic medical records and computerized systems that make medical processes and prescription orders automatic, in an effort to reduce pharmacy error injury or wrongful death.

The Chicago Tribune reports that the federal government is also currently helping the digital shift by giving $23 billion in incentives to healthcare providers who purchase the electronic systems, with the hopes that these medical technologies will help increase access to patients’ medical information, help healthcare providers communicate better with each other, help doctors to see test results more quickly, and implement electronic safeguards to remind doctors about recommended medical practices, or to alert them about harmful drug interactions before prescribing.

With all of the benefits that come with electronic medical records and computerized systems, potential problems are also taking place, like crashing of hospital computers, or software bugs that interfere with important data, or even delete information from computerized records. Computerized systems also reportedly can produce data about patients that is disorganized or difficult to read, especially when a doctor is quickly looking for critical patient information.

Risperdal Recalled by Manufacturer Due to Drug Contamination

July 29, 2011 | Lebowitz & Mzhen

Our Talbot County, Maryland pharmacy error injury lawyer blog recently discussed a series of recalls drug maker Johnson & Johnson made last year, in an effort to maintain the health and safety of consumers—after complaints of an unusual smell causing nausea, vomiting, diarrhea and gastrointestinal pain were reported, due to trace amounts of 2, 4, and 6-tribomoanisole (TBA), a chemical used to preserve wood necessary in the construction of pallets used for transportation and shipping of the product packaging materials.

In related news, Ortho-McNeil-Janssen Pharmaceutical, the drug manufactures of Risperdal (risperidone), an antipsychotic drug used for the treatment of schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, and irritability associated with autistic disorder in adolescents and children, recently voluntarily recalled 16,000 bottles of the brand name drug and 24,000 bottles of the generic drug—also because of an unusual odor.

The Risperdal drug manufacturers found that the unusual smell was also caused by trace amounts of TBA, used to preserve wood pallets for the transportation and storage of product materials. While not considered to be toxic, a small group of patients have reported gastrointestinal symptoms when taking products with this offensive odor. The drug maker claims that the presence of TBA has not caused any reported serious adverse events, but the company has instituted a series of actions to reduce the potential of TBA contamination in the future, to avoid personal injury or harm to any consumers.

This is the second medication error warning surrounding Risperdal this year. Last month our attorneys discussed another warning involving Risperdal in a Baltimore pharmacy error injury blog, issued by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, discussing potentially dangerous medication errors associated with Risperdal and Requip, a drug used for the treatment of Parkinson’s disease and Restless Legs Syndrome, with 226 reports of patients receiving the incorrect medication.

Report Warns Consumers to Take Precautions With Drug Labels and Instructions

July 25, 2011 | Lebowitz & Mzhen

In a previous Baltimore medication error injury blog post, our attorneys discussed a recent investigation by Consumer Reports Health that found evidence of inconsistency among prescription drug labels for warfarin, a blood thinner. The report found that important safety warnings and medication guides that are required by the federal government in order to prevent medication errors, were often omitted or left out of patient’s warfarin prescriptions.

As our Maryland pharmacy mistake lawyer blog has reported previously, every year, according to research by the Institute of Medicine, there are 1.5 million preventable medication error injuries, one third of which take place outside of hospitals, where consumers must make their own decisions about following medication instructions. Consumer Reports Health suggests that these medication errors happen because consumers are confused by the material that is included with prescriptions, and that they rely heavily on the medication bottle label—a problem if there are omissions or inconsistencies with the drug label.

The report found the following discrepancies:

• Four out of five pharmacies neglected to provide the medication guides that are required by the FDA for certain drugs, including warfarin.
• All of the pharmacies provided their own materials for the patients, but these conflicted with the guides for warfarin approved by the FDA. The FDA recommended that patients abstain from alcohol while taking the drug, while two pharmacies warned patients that they should just limit or avoid alcohol usage.

Medication Errors Linked to Death of Patient in Nursing Home

July 8, 2011 | Lebowitz & Mzhen

In a recent Baltimore pharmacy error injury blog, our attorneys discussed a pharmacy misfill and medication error that lead to a 94-year-old nursing home resident’s wrongful death in New York, after she received the incorrect medication for nearly twenty days as a result of a pharmacy misfill.

In a related news report, a patient in a nursing home, also in the State of New York, has recently died, after medication errors allegedly led to her wrongful death.

The patient reportedly entered the Lake Ridge Care Center on the 10th of January in 2010, due to congestive heart failure and low potassium. Her doctor reportedly ordered that the she receive three doses (two-tablets) of potassium every day. According to the New York State investigation, the staff of the home failed to properly administer twenty-six of the medication doses to the patient over a period of eight days.

On January 23, 2011, the patient was reportedly sent to the hospital emergency room, where she suffered a severely abnormal heart rhythm and died the same day, from cardiac arrest. Her potassium levels were found to be extremely low, due to medication errors that led her to miss her prescribed potassium doses to help blood pump through the heart.

New Study Finds Electronic Medication Error Rates Consistent with Handwritten Prescriptions

July 1, 2011 | Lebowitz & Mzhen

In recent news that our Pharmacy error injury attorneys have been following, a new study from the Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association found that prescriptions sent electronically to pharmacies by doctors are almost as likely to have errors as the prescription medication orders handwritten by doctors.

The study examined 3,850 electronic prescriptions that a commercial pharmacy retain chain received over a period of four weeks in 2008. Out of the 3,850 e-prescriptions studied, researches found that 12%, almost 500, contained a total of 466 prescribing errors.

The researchers noted that their findings on e-prescribing error rates are consistent with their earlier study and research for error rates on handwritten prescriptions. Out of the 466 electronic prescribing errors discovered, only one-third of them could have caused patient harm or personal injury.

According to Bloomberg, the results undermine the safety benefits expected from e-prescribing, especially as the federal government paid over $158.3 million to doctors and hospitals in the beginning of 2011 to encourage doctors to switch over to electronic health records, as a way to reduce healthcare costs and eliminate medical and medication errors. The report found that although many providers are rapidly adopting electronic health records and e-prescribing, many of the expected benefits of the electronic computerized prescribing will not take effect if the electronic prescribing applications are not able to catch medication errors, or in fact cause medication errors.

FDA Warns of Confusion between Risperdal and Requip, Leading to Medication Error

June 27, 2011 | Lebowitz & Mzhen

The Food and Drug Administration recently issued a warning about the potentially dangerous medication errors occurring with the drugs Risperdal (risperidone) and Requip (ropinrole)—with 226 reports of patients accidentally receiving the wrong drug, causing sickness and at least one death.

Risperdal (risperidone) is an antipsychotic used for the treatment of schizophrenia, autism side effects and bipolar disorder, and is reportedly being confused with Requip (ropinirole), a drug used for the treatment of Parkinson’s disease and Restless Legs Syndrome, that acts in place of dopamine.

According to the Food and Drug Administration report, the medication errors are happening as a result of the drug name similarity as well as the similarity in generic drug labels and packaging, with overlapping drug characteristics such as the drug strengths, and dosing intervals. Other errors have reportedly stemmed from illegible handwriting on prescriptions.

Patients who were victims of the medication errors have reportedly experienced confusion, tiredness, hallucinations, and an altered or changed mental status, among others health problems.

The FDA warns patients who are taking the generic versions of Requip or Risperdal to notice the name and appearance of their medication, to know exactly why they are taking the drug, and to ask any questions and to report any difference in medication appearance to their pharmacists—to avoid pharmacy misfills or medication errors.

FDA Tips for Administering OTC Medication to Children—to Reduce Medication Error Injury

June 6, 2011 | Lebowitz & Mzhen

In a previous Washington D.C. medication error injury lawyer blog, we covered the recent guidelines announced by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) aimed to prevent medication errors and overdoses with children’s over-the-counter (OTC) medications.

According to the FDA, accidental medication errors and overdoses in young children are a common health problem, but a problem that is entirely preventable. The new guidelines are aimed to reduce frequent medication administration errors that happen as a result of confusing label instructions, inconsistency with the drug measuring devices, and confusion over the exact units of medication measurement—to prevent harm or injury.

Along with the new medication error prevention guidelines, the FDA also outlined tips for parents and caregivers, to reduce administration error when giving medicine to a child or infant.

According to the FDA, always:

• Know the active ingredients in the medicine that you are giving to your child.
• Read and follow the drug facts label on all medicines that are OTC.
• Use the tools for dosage administration that come with the medicine. Never use tools from other medication.
• Be aware of the difference between a teaspoon and a tablespoon.
• Know your child’s weight exactly.
• Check the medicine three times.
• Make sure to give the right medicine in the exact amount that is directed.
• Ask your doctor, nurse or pharmacist to make sure which medicines can be used at the same time.
• Store your medicines in a safe place that is out of reach for children.
• Make sure to use caps on all medicines that are child-resistant.

Hospital Fined $50K in Medication Mistake

June 3, 2011 | Lebowitz & Mzhen

In recent news that our Rockville, Maryland medication error injury attorneys have been following, twelve Los Angeles-area hospitals were hit with administrative penalties this week by the California Department of Public Health, ranging from $25,000 up to $75,000, after the facilities were found to be non-compliant with requirements that were likely to cause serious injury or death to patients.

One medical center, Promises Hospital, was reportedly fined $50,000 for a medication mix-up that caused a patient with a heart condition to require emergency response.

According to the Los Angeles Times, a medication error was reported in 2010 that led to the inspection of Promises Hospital. The inspectors reportedly found that a patient was given a dose of Cardizem, the drug used to treat irregular heart rhythms, that was 10 times the ordered dose—causing the patient’s heart rate to drop so quickly that the nurse was unable to get a blood reading for almost 10 minutes.

According to the department, when problems are found in facilities, hospitals must take corrective actions to prevent any similar medication errors or other problems from happening in the future, and causing injury or death to patients.

Promises Hospital reportedly claimed that it has initiated an investigation into the drug error, and has taken the necessary steps to prevent this medication mix-up for happening again in the future.

New FDA Guidelines to Prevent Children’s OTC Medication Errors

June 1, 2011 | Lebowitz & Mzhen

In a recent Baltimore, Maryland pharmacy error injury lawyer blog, our attorneys discussed an FDA panel’s recent recommendation that dosing instructions be based primarily on children’s weight, and not age—as studies found that many parents administer the wrong drug dosage to their children because of confusing medication label instructions.

The FDA has recently released new guidelines that are expected to reduce the prevalence of medication error and overdoses with Children’s liquid over-the-counter (OTC) medication, which is administered and dispensed with cups, spoons and droppers.

The guidance was reportedly developed after past reports of medication errors revealed that labels often cause confusion with administration, the measuring devices provided in drug packages are often inconsistent with the labels, and parents often used devices from other drug products to dispense the medication that do not match the label instructions—leading to medication error.

According to the FDA recommendations:

• Dosage dispensing devices (cups, spoons, droppers) should be included with all OTC medications that are liquid and taken orally.
• Over-the-counter (OTC) drugs will reportedly now come with dispensing devices that are calibrated to match the exact units of measurement specified on the drug label—to avoid drug error or injury.
• Companies should make sure that the liquid dispensing devices are used only to measure the intended drug products.

• The markings on the dispensing devices should be visible when the liquid medication is added for measurement.

And as our Maryland medication mistake attorneys discussed previously, the FDA is also advising that liquid acetaminophen products will be changed to one concentration only, with age-appropriate dosages, to reduce medication dosing errors.