As pharmaceutical companies continue to develop powerful drugs designed to assist with illnesses and injuries, doctors are increasingly prescribing these medications to their patients. While the vast majority of these prescriptions prove helpful to these patients, occasionally a doctor will make a mistake in prescribing a drug and a patient will be injured or even killed as a result.
Known as a type of medical malpractice, prescription drug errors occur when a doctor or other medical provider makes a mistake in prescribing medication that indicates a lack of care and competent skill. When this mistake injures a patient, a medical provider can be on the hook for medical malpractice.
Some of the most common prescription drug errors include simple but nonetheless dangerous mistakes such as prescribing the wrong medication or the wrong dosage. Other times doctors will fail to take a full medication history or take into account how drugs interact and will prescribe a drug that interacts negatively with other medications a patient is taking. Another mistake doctors can make is failing to warn patients of common side effects that accompany the medication they are prescribing.
Doctors are expected to meet a high standard of care when providing medical care. Patients are entrusting their health and bodily safety to their doctors and even small mistakes can prove highly dangerous to a patient. When prescribing medications, doctors and other medical providers must be extremely careful to prescribe the correct medication, the correct dosage and apprise patients of the side effects of the medication.
If you or someone you love has been injured or killed as a result of a prescription drug error, you have legal options. Contact a North Carolina medical malpractice attorney with the Lanier Law Group today.