Tennessee Medical Malpractice Law Blog

A new report from the Institute of Medicine tells us that "at least 1.5 million Americans are sickened, injured or killed each year by errors in prescribing, dispensing and taking medications."

The cost of treating drug related injuries exceeds $3.5 billion dollars per year.

The results of the study were reported in the Washington Post, which said that "[t]he report's most striking findings concerned hospitals and long-term care facilities, which it said generally do not report errors to patients or family members unless they result in injury or death. The panel said all health-care organizations should report medication errors to patients, whether or not they cause harm. "

Read the entire article here.

A study by Harvard Medical School's Department of Ambulatory Care and Prevention that came out last week reveals some striking statistics on potential prescription errors. The study focused on black box warnings, the FDA's strongest label for high-risk medication that is printed in a black frame in a drug's package insert. Researchers looked to whether doctors complied with the black box warnings when prescribing medicine to ambulatory care patients.

The results? Lab tests were not performed for half (49.6%) of patients who received medicines where the black box warning recommended a lab test. 95 pregnant women may have been prescribed medication that was unsafe to take while pregnant. Read about the study here.

Often times when reviewing a case, you find it necessary to note the medications your client was/is taking and to check for possible drug interactions. The first place you would look would probably be the Physicians' Desk Reference for the year(s) in question. Also, take a look at this website for consumers. Here you can read about specific drugs, check drug interactions, and more. What is really helpful with this site is the fact that you can check more than two drugs at a time.

There are many people who are concerned about the quality of medical care in our country. Those of us who represent patients know that medical negligence lawsuits are not the only way to improve the quality of care; indeed, they are not even the best way to do so. What needs to be done is that the industry itself needs to recognize the problems it has and needs to encourage the people in the industry to adopt systems to avoid errors.

Here is an article from a medical journal where the researchers give us data to remind us that computers in health care will not solve all the problems in the industry. Here is another article about the study.