When a loved one spends time in an assisted living facility, it should be expected that the staff would show a high level of care and professionalism, whether the patient is there for a few days or for an extended period of time. Unfortunately, many medical mistakes occur in nursing homes across the United States. Such errors range from staff abuse and neglect, to leaving a patient alone when he or she should be supervised, to medication errors that threaten the health or lives of patients. In fact, says the National Center for Biotechnology Information, medication errors account for a large portion of nursing home incidents in North Carolina.
According to the Kaiser Family Foundation, nearly 3 percent of North Carolina residents currently live in certified nursing facilities. Many of these residents are at risk of medication errors that include staff administering the wrong drugs or dosage. Analgesic errors especially increased the likelihood of harm to patients to our state’s nursing home residents. These drugs range from painkillers such as acetaminophen, to anti-inflammatory medications or opioids like morphine, says McKnight’s.