Articles related to MEDICAL ERRORS

Medication Prescribing Error: A Medical Malpractice Case with Tragic Consequences In an evolving healthcare ecosystem, the need for rigorous medication dosing protocols based on patient-specific conditions is underlined in a recent medical malpractice case involving a nurse practitioner and an unfortunate prescription error.

By capitalizing dissimilar letters, tall man writing helps distinguish between distinctive letter characters of similar medicine names that may be mistaken for one another. Since 2008, the ISMP has kept a list of medicine names in uppercase and bolded tall man letters. The organization surveyed 298 healthcare professionals between October and December 2022 to assist in updating the list, and the findings showed that tall man letters were frequently used: 74% of respondents consistently utilize tall man letters for organization-defined drug names in all necessary circumstances, and 80% of respondents said their facility employs tall man letters in all settings and across multiple facilities.

A nonprofit group called the Institute for Safe Medication Practices (ISMP) collaborates closely with healthcare professionals and institutions, regulatory bodies, trade associations, and the pharmaceutical industry to promote education regarding drug errors and their avoidance. Practitioners and patients who voluntarily report medication errors to the ISMP National Medication Errors Reporting Program (ISMP MERP) are subject to an impartial review by ISMP. Actual or probable errors that have been reported to ISMP are those that are displayed in the tables.

An Idaho man received $13.5 million after a nearby hospital missed his stroke diagnosis by more than 12 hours. The jury’s finding that the emergency physician engaged in “reckless misconduct” allowed this case to exceed the usual Idaho cap on judgments for cases of this nature of $400,000.00.

Oncologists were mentioned in two important specialist areas in CMS’ examination of inappropriate payments made to Part B providers, with the dismal outcomes as follows: Four hundred (400) claims for oncology/hematology were examined; of these, 60.9% lacked sufficient supporting paperwork, 31.9% had inaccurate coding, and the remaining cases had neither, along with no other issues. Given these findings, CMS projects $146 million in erroneous payments. In medical oncology, 147 claims were analyzed; 54.5% had no documentation and 37.7% had inaccurate coding, with the balance (7.9%) having insufficient documentation. According to CMS data, the projected overpayments for this claim sample are $12.9 million.

As originally reported in the Journal of Addiction Medicine, use of the animal tranquilizer xylazine has now been seen in more than 23 states in the US. Finding the drug in a patient sample should prompt the physician to look for early signs of tissue infection and other symptoms.