The Lawrence Firm Blog

Many people who are admitted into the hospital assume that the medical professionals assigned to their care can provide the necessary care to help them overcome their condition. While this is what happens in most cases, there are other cases in which the medical staff doesn’t provide the necessary care due to medical negligence or other errors. For patients who are admitted into Kentucky’s King’s Daughters Medical Center’s intensive care

Going to the doctor when you are sick is usually associated with actually seeing a doctor. That trend, however, might be changing with a bill signed by Kentucky Gov. Beshear on Feb. 13, 2014. Senate Bill 7 gives qualified nurse practitioners the right to prescribe certain medications without having to have a collaborative agreement with a physician. The president of the Kentucky Medical Association says that access to health care

According to a report released on Jan. 16, the Federal Drug Administration stated that many patients, including Kentucky patients, who are prescribed acetaminophen are at risk for liver damage. The FDA reportedly requested that doctors stop prescribing medications that have doses of more than 325 milligrams of acetaminophen. Acetaminophen is found in medications that help patients deal with pain. For example, Vicodin and Percocet both have acetaminophen as their main

It all began with a toe infection. The family of a 33-year-old man who died after repeated trips to a healthcare facility for his rapidly worsening condition says that it ended with his wrongful death due to an antibiotic medication error. Recently, a federal court agreed and reached a settlement of $2.5 million with the man’s family and fiancee. The settlement was awaiting approval from the U.S. Department of Justice

Misplacing a decimal point may seem like a small mathematical error, but for patients in Kentucky and elsewhere in the United States, putting a decimal in the wrong spot on a prescription or medication order can make the difference between life and death. Unfortunately, such medication errors go undetected more than the average person thinks, leading to overmedication that can result in serious injury, the worsening of a medical condition,

In Kentucky as in other states, one of the most common types of preventable medical errors are medication errors, which can involve dosage mistakes, mistakes in the route of administration, failure to administer a prescribed medication, or giving a medication to the wrong patient. New research from the Pennsylvania Patient Safety Authority looks at that last category of medication error in depth. According to this report, patients may receive medication

Blood thinners reduce stroke and heart attack risks by preventing blood clots from developing in the veins and arteries. However, when used incorrectly, blood thinners can hurt patients more than they help. Healthcare experts, endorsed by the Anticoagulation Forum, which works on improving anticoagulation care, made new guidelines regarding the effective and safe use of anticoagulants. The new guidelines are in response to the approximately seven percent of medical errors

Kentucky’s nursing homes are sued more often than those of any other state. While some blame a litigious atmosphere fostered by judgment-friendly juries, more often, lawsuits are the result of real medical malpractice issues: failure to diagnose, mismanagement of care, and even wrongful death caused by negligence on the part of healthcare workers. A recent bill proposed in the Senate would establish a three-physician Medical Review Panel that would examine

Mismanagement of patient records can lead to more than just health dangers to the patient; it can also lead to lawsuits. Plaintiffs are more frequently seeking judgments against physicians for a medication error resulting from the doctor’s failure to note that a patient was already taking a drug that could be incompatible with the new prescription. In some cases, suicides have been pursued as wrongful death cases based solely on

According to a new study conducted by the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, patients are usually the last to know when a medication error is made in a hospital. While many mistakes do not cause harm to patients, personnel still tend to delay telling patients about these types of errors. The study also found that the most serious medication errors tend to occur in intensive care units, where families

An alleged medication error and other neglect led to the death of a nursing home resident, according to a lawsuit filed by the family. The 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals denied the facility’s appeal of a judgment entered by a jury against the home, stating in its opinion that the organization was guilty of a “chaotic environment” that led to a probability of potential harm for patients. The victim

A new Yale study on medication errors found that three-quarters of all patients discharged from hospitals do not understand the instructions for taking the prescriptions or are given the wrong medications. The senior patients with heart problems or pneumonia were most likely to have issues, with 24 percent of them receiving a wrong prescription and 60 percent misunderstanding one or more medication changes. These mistakes can stem from misunderstandings on