On April 20, a jury returned a verdict for the plaintiff and against a north St. Louis County nursing home after a mentally ill patient died when he received a fatal dose of morphine. The 45-year-old man had never been prescribed the opiate derivative and passed away at a hospital in 2009. Although his death… Continue Reading
Category Archives: Medication Errors
Subscribe to Medication Errors RSS FeedNursing Home Cited For Repeated Medication Errors
Posted in Medication ErrorsNo new patients will be admitted and existing residents are being transferred to other facilities after a nursing home in Madison, TN received a scathing inspection. The Imperial Gardens Health and Rehabilitation Center is being decertified and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services have stopped funding for new patients. The center will only receive… Continue Reading
Fatal Medication Overdose Results In Verdict Against Nursing Home
Posted in Abuse In Chicago Nursing Homes & Other Communities Within Illinois, Medication ErrorsA mistake administering medication has cost a patient their life and cost an Illinois nursing home $273,607 following a wrongful death jury trial. The nursing home negligence lawsuit was initiated by the family of a 66-year-old patient who was admitted to Rosewood Care Center for short-term skilled nursing care and control of her chronic pain…. Continue Reading
Using PT/INR To Manage Coumadin Levels & Prevent Injury In Nursing Home Patients
Posted in Medication Errors, Nursing Home FallsCoumadin is the brand name of a drug called warfarin, an anticoagulant that is commonly used to prevent blood clots. It is used for various heart conditions and circulatory problems, including heart attack patients, prosthetic heart valves, treat or prevent venous thrombosis (swelling and blood clot in a vein) and pulmonary embolism. Although effective in… Continue Reading
Antipsychotic Drugs Over-Used In Nursing Home Patients Can Cause Serious Injury & Death
Posted in Medication ErrorsAn alarming amount of nursing home patients are medicated with antipsychotic drugs, yet most do not have any type of psychosis. One nursing home in Massachusetts, Farren Care Center, has 71% of their patients on these drugs and they are far from being alone. The question is why are nursing homes using these drugs and… Continue Reading
Nursing Home Patients Continue To Be Victims Of Drug Overdose And Adverse Drug Events
Posted in Medication ErrorsSince many, in fact, the majority, of nursing home residents are on some form of prescription drugs, they need to have adequate supervision of the quantity and in what combinations their drugs are administered. One of the many areas that are under scrutiny in the nursing home industry is how medications are managed. The amounts… Continue Reading
Senators Call for New Rules Concerning Use of Anti-Psychotics in Nursing Homes
Posted in Medication ErrorsOf all the responsibilities we entrust to nursing home staff, medication errors should worry us the least. After all, compared with the daunting logistics of physical care taking, can it really be that difficult to administer a set number of pills at a predetermined time?Apparently – yes. Quite difficult. Study after study – including a recent… Continue Reading
Metolazone? Methimazole? What’s the difference? For nursing home patients, a lot!
Posted in Dehydration, Medication ErrorsThe reported settlement of a nursing home negligence case in involving a medication mix-up caught my attention because of my perceived increase in the frequency with which medication errors are occurring at nursing homes across the country. Like many nursing home patients, the patient involved in this incident was a frail, elderly woman, who was… Continue Reading
Failure To Provide Blood Thinning Medication Results In Stroke & Subsequent Death Of Nursing Home Patient
Posted in Medication ErrorsLike many nursing home patients, Milton Aucoin was a sick man who was reliant on a nursing home to attend to medical needs. In particular, he needed the nursing home staff to properly administer necessary medications that were prescribed by his physicians. As part of his rehabilitation from a stroke, Mr. Aucoin was to receive… Continue Reading
Episode Of Medical Errors Demonstrates Incompetance Of Nursing Home Staff In Dispensing Medicine
Posted in Medication ErrorsA recently reported episode of of nursing home negligence at a Minnesota nursing home clearly demonstrates that some facilities need to re-evaluate the way that they handle the dispensation of medications at their facility. As reported in the Star Tribune article, “State nursing home resident given overdose just hours before he died” a tragic series… Continue Reading
Common Medications Used By The Elderly Must Be Properly Monitored To Keep Patients Safe
Posted in Medication Errors, Pharmacy ErrorI highly suggest taking a look at the New York Time’s recent “Well” column, Four Drugs Cause Most Hospitalizations in Older Adults, as a real wake up call for medical facilities— such as nursing homes— to do a better job monitoring the effectiveness in their patients. The article has some interesting / concerning information concerning… Continue Reading
Nursing Home Patient Dies After Receiving ‘Toxic’ Medication Overdose
Posted in Medication Errors, Pharmacy ErrorPoor communication appears to be to blame for the death of a woman at a Minnesota nursing home who was administered a dose of medication ten times higher than prescribed by her doctor. According to news reports concerning this incident, a transcription error is likely to blame for the patient receiving 80-milliequivalent doses of… Continue Reading
Nurse Admits To Over-medicating Nursing Home Patients
Posted in Medication ErrorsWith a criminal trial set to begin, a former nurse has pleaded guilty to criminal neglect charges as opposed to letting a jury decide her fate. The nurse identified as Marty Himebaugh and her supervisor Penny Whitlock faced multiple criminal counts for their roles in a series of suspicious patients deaths at Woodstock Care Center… Continue Reading
Nursing Home Spotlight: Chateau (or “Chateau Village”) Nursing and Rehab Center; Willowbrook, IL
Posted in Abuse In Chicago Nursing Homes & Other Communities Within Illinois, Bed Sores, Pressure Sores, Decubitus Ulcers & Pressure Ulcers, Medication ErrorsOn November 5, 2010, the Illinois Department of Health issued a “Type A” violation and fine of $6,520 against the Chateau Nursing and Rehab center in Willowbrook, IL. The fine was one of several recent warning signs that something at Chateau is seriously amiss. According to an August, 2010 survey from the Illinois Department of Health, 27… Continue Reading
State Surveyors Discover Medications Continually Withheld At Conn. Nursing Home
Posted in Medication ErrorsWhile it is the responsibility of a doctor to prescribe medications for nursing home patients, the daily task of administering the medication falls squarely on the shoulders of the nursing home staff. Nursing home staff have a duty to both administer the proper medication– at the interval prescribed— to each patient. Not surprisingly when patients… Continue Reading
Medication Mixup Results In Patient’s Death At Ohio Assisted Living Facility
Posted in Medication ErrorsOne the most prevalent trends in the senior care industry is the emergence of nursing home alternatives such as assisted living facilities and group homes. While the facilities offer many perceived advantages compared with traditional nursing homes, there are significant differences in terms of the care that they are capable of providing. The most significant… Continue Reading
Elder Abuse Lawsuit: Woman Accuses Nursing Home Of Unnecessary Drugging In Order To Take Over Social Security Payments
Posted in Medication ErrorsVery disturbing allegations have surfaced in a nursing home negligence lawsuit filed against a California nursing home by a former patient at the facility. Marsha Davis has filed a lawsuit against Country Villa of Seal Beach alleging that the facility improperly gave her psychotropic medications (Ativan) without a prescription in order to take over her… Continue Reading
Shouldn’t Nursing Home Fines Be Reflective Of The Type Of Violation Committed?
Posted in Dropped Patients, Medication ErrorsAs the name would suggest, nursing home fines are one of the tools available to state and federal agencies to get them to correct their practices. After all, a substantial fine would (or at least should) cause nursing homes to carefully reevaluate how they care for patients in order to avoid similar fines in the… Continue Reading
Medication Errors To Blame For Death Of Nursing Home Patient
Posted in Medication ErrorsSome of the most tragic cases of nursing home negligence involve medication errors. Not just because the error results in a severe injury or death of a patient, but because the errors were indeed so needless. Somewhere along the line from the time the doctors order was written to the time the medication was dispensed—… Continue Reading
Pharmacy Error Blamed For Death Of Nursing Home Patient After She Receives Incorrect Medication
Posted in Medication Errors, Pharmacy ErrorAn error by an institutional pharmacy, HealthDirect, is responsible for the death of a 94-year old patient at a New York nursing home. According to New York Health Department reports, the woman was to receive methimazole, to treat her thyroid condition, but pharmacists at HealthDirect filled the prescription with metolazone– a significantly different medication used… Continue Reading
Nursing Home Cited For Neglect After Failing To Give Rehab Patient Necessary Medication
Posted in Medication ErrorsA Minnesota nursing home has been cited by the state’s Department of Health after investigators determined that staff at the facility failed to provide prescription medication to a patient who was admitted to the facility for short-term rehabilitation. The investigation was triggered in response to a complaint following the stroke-related death of an elderly… Continue Reading
Nurse Faces Murder Charges After Patient Dies From Morphine Overdose At A Britthaven Facility
Posted in Medication ErrorsPerhaps someone should have advised Angela Almore, a nurse at Britthaven in Chapel Hill, NC, that physicians are the only ones capable of prescribing prescription medications for patients. Seemingly taking the practice of medicine into her own hands when she administered Morphine to patients who should not be taking it; Ms. Almore now faces one… Continue Reading
Morphine Overdose Of Patient Initiates A Lawsuit Against Doctor & Nursing Home
Posted in Medication Errors, Nursing Home InjurySometimes I see nursing home negligence cases where a facilities errors stem from the fact that staff fail to pay attention to an initial physician order or care plans developed by the facility for a patients care. Perhaps the order itself was ambiguous, or perhaps the writing was illegible? But what happens if a physicians… Continue Reading
Rather Than Improve Poorly Performing Nursing Homes, Why Not Just Re-Categorize Them?
Posted in Medication Errors, National Nursing Home Issue & For-Profit Chains, NeglectLast fall, we discussed the problems state inspectors found at Emeritus at Crossing Pointe, a Florida nursing home, that posed an immediate threat to resident safety. During an inspection at the nursing home, inspectors discovered: An 82-year-old patient who died after staff failed to provide her heart medication for four days Inaccurate resident counts by facility managers… Continue Reading