When New Jersey residents are ill or injured, they often go to hospitals with the expectation their conditions will improve with treatment. Unfortunately, some patients are injured more severely while they are in the hospital due to some common mistakes that can happen.
One medical mistake hospitals sometimes make involves patients slipping and falling while they are there. Falls in the hospital can rise to the level of medical errors when the hospitals could have taken steps to prevent them from happening but didn’t do so. The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality reports that about one-third of hospital falls could have been prevented by the facilities in which they took place.
Another major error that can lead to significant harm involves being prescribed unneeded antibiotics. People can help to prevent this by making certain the medical staff are aware of all of the medications they are currently taking as well as any allergies they have to certain medicines. Similarly, patients receiving the wrong dose or the wrong medicine entirely is a huge problem. Since medications may interact with over-the-counter drugs, it is important for people to make certain the staff note any non-prescription medications and vitamins they are taking.
Medical malpractice leads to a significant number of serious injuries and deaths in the U.S. every year. By clearly communicating with medical personnel, people may be able to help prevent medical mistakes from taking place. When a doctor or other medical staff makes errors that cause harm to a patient, the patient may want to have a qualified Cherry Hill medical malpractice lawyer review the medical documentation in order to see if those mistakes rose to the level of negligence. For a free case review contact us at Folkman Law, call 856-354-9444.
