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Boston is known for top-notch hospitals and health care, but even in a city with premier medical services, errors occur. What makes it worse is when preventable errors continue to happen in every facet of health care. A new Massachusetts state survey recently discovered that almost one-in-five or 20% of local respondents have experienced a medical error.
Pharmacists and pharmacy staff are not immune to errors either. These errors can have severe, sometimes fatal, outcomes. If you or a loved one has been injured because of a pharmacy error, the Boston pharmacy negligence attorneys at Colucci Colucci & Marcus, P.C. have the experience to handle your claim.
The Betsy Lehman Center for Patient Safety has been analyzing this series of studies since 2017. The findings reveal almost 62,000 errors in Massachusetts yearly. The costs associated with follow-up care to repair damage caused by medical errors resulted in $617 million in 2017.
A 2019 article in the Boston Globe reported the amount of verifiable medical errors suffered by Massachusetts residents is comparable to national numbers, and these numbers have not improved in the past two decades.
One of the studies reviewed the state’s health insurance claims, estimating the cost of damages associated with medical errors. This was paired with a phone survey where calls were made to more than 5,000 households who experienced medical errors. The calls questioned the respondents regarding the impacts caused by medical errors, including:
Researchers also discovered:
The survey also revealed how medical errors can ripple away from patients and impact their families. Many of the patient’s families report suffering from long-lasting emotional health issues like:
Boston’s health care is consistently ranked among the best in the country, but no system is perfect, and errors still occur.
What is not seen after analyzing health insurance claims are the medical errors associated with diagnosis and medication not identified in insurance claims. Missing these common mistakes is a severe underestimation of the damage medical errors can inflict.
The errors most associated with pharmacy negligence can have a wide range, but the most common include:
Receiving the wrong medication or dosage may cause a patient to suffer countless detrimental effects or adverse reactions, including death. If the drugs are habit-forming and improperly filled, patients may develop addictions or overdoses.
The Boston pharmacy negligence attorneys at Colucci Colucci & Marcus, P.C. have a reputation for being aggressive representatives for our clients. We have an excellent success rate when going against pharmaceutical companies.
If you or a loved one has been impacted by pharmacy negligence, do not delay in contacting us for a free consultation or by calling 617-917-3917 to review your case.
