Medication Errors Still High Among Surgical Patients

When you have surgery, you want to believe that you’re in good hands. That isn’t always the case, and some data that has been collected may frighten you.

Medication errors are common during surgery, according to data from 2015. A study showed that around half of operations analyzed by the study had medication errors of some kind. The mistakes ranged from drug label issues to drug documentation mistakes or incorrect dosing. Sometimes, the patients’ vital signs had changed, but those changes weren’t treated.

Medication errors were documented in 124 out of 277 surgical cases in the study. During those surgeries, there had been 3,675 medication administrations, but 193 mistakes were made. Only around 20 percent of those events weren’t able to be prevented.

Looking at information like this shows why it is so vital for record keeping to begin and for these events to be properly monitored. What’s also problematic is that the study’s author was not surprised by the results. Medical errors are somewhat common, but they shouldn’t be seen as acceptable.

Why do these mistakes take place when patients should be monitored more carefully? In surgical situations, a lot of the hospital safety protocols have to be bypassed or loosened. Events take place quickly, and circumstances can call for immediate action to be taken. The lack of protocols can lead to mistakes and injuries that can be serious and even fatal.

If you or a loved one has suffered injuries because of medical mistakes, you deserve the right to make a claim. Our website has more information on how we can help you.