I work in a SNF facility. I am one of the nursing supervisors. About one month ago I discharged a patient to home. On the discharge meds I transcribed Tegretol as Toprol. I also listed Toprol, so he did get that med but also got Tegretol.
One week later I recvd a call from his dialysis clinic asking why he had been started on that med in our facility. When I pulled his chart from medical records I discovered that I had made the error on discharge. I immediately notified our doctor, who was in our facility on rounds, and showed her the chart. I notified my DON. I called the dialysis clinic and notified them so they could dc the med and then I called the patients sister at home and told her I had made an error.
Today my administrator recvd papers from a lawyer. they are suing us over my med error.
I remember when I talked to his sister to tell her of the error that she said he had been dizzy that week but otherwise no adverse effects of the med. But of course I am birthing a cow here.
Has this ever happened to anyone else?
I felt horrible when I found out I had made the error. There was nothing else I could do. What irks me is this sue happy mentality of the general public. Every day I see commercials on TV that say "let us sue the nursing home for you". I'm not blaming anyone but myself, *I* made the error. But why do people have to sue?