Medication errors involve the negligent prescribing, dispensing, or administration of pharmaceuticals to patients. The category covers a wide range of failures, including selection of the wrong drug for the patient’s condition, prescribing at the wrong dose, failing to recognize contraindications or drug interactions, failing to monitor for adverse effects, errors in compounding or dispensing at the pharmacy level, errors in administration by nursing staff at the bedside, and failures of communication between providers about ongoing medications.
The standard of care varies with the role of the practitioner. A prescribing physician’s standard is what a reasonable physician in the same circumstances would have prescribed, considering the diagnosis, the patient’s history and comorbidities, and the available alternatives. A pharmacist’s standard includes an independent obligation to check for interactions, contraindications, and dosing errors and to question a prescription that appears inappropriate. A nurse’s standard includes the obligation to verify the right medication, the right dose, the right patient, the right route, and the right time.
Medication errors involving opioids, anticoagulants, insulin, and chemotherapy agents are particularly high-stakes, both because the drugs are inherently dangerous and because errors with them are more likely to cause severe or fatal harm.
Posts tagged Medication Errors analyze Ontario decisions involving negligent prescribing, dispensing, or administration of medications, across multiple specialties and clinical settings.
A registered practical nurse admitted failures across two Guelph hospitals: an admission assessment backdated without notation, medications charted but never given, and a bladder scan reported but not performed. The CNO Discipline Committee accepted a joint submission for a three-month suspension with twelve months of oversight. What the electronic audit trail proved, and where a discipline finding stops short of a civil claim.
When inadequate vancomycin monitoring produces a preventable death. The standard of care, the multi-provider liability picture, and the legal framework.
A patient’s guide to medication errors in Ontario, including the common error patterns, the high-alert drugs, and what it takes to prove a malpractice claim.
GLP-1 drugs are now mainstream medicine in Canada. When prescribing falls below the standard of care, the harms can be serious and the legal questions are real.
On Inside Medical Malpractice with Chris Rokosh: medication errors as Never Events, the 10 rights of medication administration, and what they mean in litigation.
