Medication Administration Errors: Who is ultimately at fault?
A potential client comes to you claiming they lost a loved one due to a medication error. Before you decide to take the case, you need to confirm the allegation. Where do you begin?
As an attorney, you may be overwhelmed and confused with the enormity of the patient electronic medical record (EMR). Maybe you start with the medication administration record (MAR), researching the 5 Rights of Medication Administration, what are they, and were they followed? What are the 5 Rights of Medication Administration?
Right Person
Right Medication
Right Dose
Right Time
Right Route
Even as you educate yourself on the medication administration rights, would this confirm there was a medication administration error? No.
In 2017 there was a patient death due to a medication administration error by a nurse at Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville, Tennessee (The Tennessean, March 25, 2022). Recently, the nurse in this case, RaDonda Vaught shared her experience from that traumatic event on the Nurses’ Service Organization (NSO) webinar held September 19, 2024, which was a compelling testimony of how important it is to adhere to the standards of care for medication administration.
Medication administration errors begin with the physician order. Was there an order, written or verbal? Was the order legible, transcribed correctly, and entered into the electronic medical record (EMR) correctly? Was this just an error due to RaDonda’s actions or was there systematic processes directly causing this medication error?
No matter what side of the legal team you are on, plaintiff or defense, all the components involved in medication administration need to be examined from the beginning of the physician order to the evaluation of the patient response to the medication, including death.
As an attorney, you have the availability of Legal Nurse Consultants, experts in reviewing EMRs, knowledgeable in understanding the standards of care for medication administration, including the 5 Rights of Medication Administration, along with knowing the various healthcare systems and processes integral to safe medication administration.
