Older adults in general tend to use more prescription medications than younger people do. Medication can help address a variety of health concerns including blood pressure issues. It is common for older adults to take multiple different medications daily to manage their health concerns.
Having professionals assist with that medication is one of the benefits that come from moving into a nursing home. Older adults don’t need to remember which pills to take when, and family members don’t need to worry about managing a medication schedule either. Unfortunately, the professionals working at such facilities can make mistakes that end up causing harm to the residents living in a nursing home.
Why are medication errors a common health issue for those living in facilities?
Understaffing can lead to worker mistakes
Many nursing homes and similar long-term care facilities do not have enough workers on hand at any given point to ensure the comfort and timely support of residents. The focus is on legal compliance, not necessarily on meeting the needs of the people who live at the facility.
When there aren’t enough workers on hand, crucial tasks like medication administration may end up delayed. Workers responding to an elopement incident or a combative resident may put off the administration of medication for others by hours in some cases. They might entirely forget to fulfill that standard job task in other cases.
Delayed or missed doses can significantly reduce the efficacy of medication-based treatments. Timing errors are among the most common mistakes in professional drug administration and can impact the health and quality of life of the patients who do not receive the medication when they should.
Distraction is another major risk factor
The professionals working at a nursing home often have to answer inquiries from other residents and those visiting residents as they fulfill job tasks. Someone asking a professional a question at the wrong moment might lead to them mislabeling medication or distributing drugs to the wrong people.
Seemingly small disruptions to a professional’s workflow can lead to them making mistakes that could cause a host of issues for the residents involved. Receiving the wrong medication might lead to an allergic reaction or a dangerous drug interaction.
Patients might also experience negative side effects from not receiving the medication they should. In some cases, they might receive the right medication but in the wrong dose, which could have serious medical consequences. Families dealing with the financial and medical fallout of mistakes involving prescription drugs are sometimes able to seek compensation from a nursing home.
Medication errors are often the result of negligent nursing home practices, including intentional understaffing. Taking action to seek financial compensation can potentially allow victims to offset harm caused by nursing home negligence and may force a business running a negligent facility to reevaluate how it operates.