By Dan Noll on July 27th, 2024 in Nursing Home Abuse
Understanding Overmedication Issues in Illinois: Nursing Home Abuse Lawyer Explains Liability When Facilities are Intentionally Giving a Patient Too Much Medication
Overmedicating a resident is a serious problem. According to statistics, overmedication errors cause as many as 98,000 deaths a year in the United States. However, overmedicating a resident may not just be accidental. Unfortunately, a nursing home or long-term care facility could be intentionally giving a patient too much medication to keep them calm, punish them, make a shift easier, or due to abuse. Such overmedication can result in serious or fatal personal injuries, and sometimes be claimed to have been an accident when it clearly wasn’t. The nursing home abuse lawyers in Springfield at the Noll Law Office know that these types of incidents are very serious but also very difficult to prove without an experienced legal team.
That’s why their compassionate and skilled team of lawyers, paralegals, secretaries, and other staff work with law enforcement, treating providers, and leading experts to help prove a nursing home abuse, neglect, or negligence case. Unlike other bodily injury law firms, the Noll Law Office provides dedicated representation by handling cases on a case-by-case basis – not following any scripted or cookie-cutter approach. To learn more about their dedicated team of legal professionals, call the Noll Law Office to schedule a free consultation by dialing (217) 414-8889.
What is Overmedicating a Resident?
Overmedicating a resident is when a provider administers more medication to a resident than has been ordered by a physician or than what is appropriate in the situation. This could be done accidentally, including when:
- Orders are mixed up with the wrong patient
- Medications are mixed up and the dose for one medication is used instead of the other
- Prescriptions are given without food when they should be with food or drink to dilute them
- Understaffing
- Inappropriately trained staff
- Unqualified staff to do assignments
- Pharmacy errors, and
- Other unintentional errors.
However, some facilities may be intentionally giving a patient too much medication. This means that a provider is knowingly and purposefully administering more medication than a resident needs, which could have significant effects on a resident.
Common Reasons for Overmedicating a Resident
There are many reasons why a nursing home staff member may be intentionally giving a patient too much medication. Some of these reasons include the following:
To Make a Resident Docile or Sleepy
Sometimes residents are difficult due to their needs, especially when they are an elopement risk, wandering risk, fall risk, or otherwise combative or just hard to manage. However, these traits are not unexpected at a nursing home, and they do not give a provider the license to harm a resident. Unfortunately, far too many providers will try to take the edge off a resident by providing medications that may make a resident sleepy, drowsy, fatigued, or otherwise easier to handle.
Some of the medications used to intentionally medicate a resident are at a facility (meaning they could be stolen by a provider), but other times a staff member may sneak in or otherwise bring in drugs to help put a resident sleep. These could be lawful drugs, like sleep aides, but they could also be illegal drugs that are meant to tranquilize a resident. Whether the drugs are legal or not, any administration of a medication that is not ordered and is not medically appropriate could be abuse, neglect, or negligence.
Punishing a Resident
Unfortunately, sometimes a staff member is giving a resident too much medication to punish him or her. This might be because the resident has been needy due to his or her condition, or because a resident has been having a bad day due to his or her conditions. Although this may sound like the resident’s fault, it is not. Many residents are put into facilities because of their physical and emotional needs, including due to conditions like dementia, and they may have trouble managing their emotions and what they are saying or doing. This is not, however, a license for providers to abuse them.
Other times a resident may have complained about a staff member who did something wrong or who was late, mean, aggressive, or otherwise providing substandard care. A staff member may decide to get back at the resident by overmedicating him or her, including giving medication that may make the resident sleepy, sick, experience headaches, or otherwise feel worse or fatigued. This is a type of nursing home abuse.
Helping to Get Through a Shift
Sometimes a staff member is absolutely overwhelmed during a shift. This could be due to call outs or understaffing, or it could be because staff are inadequately trained or supported by supervisors. Whatever the case, sometimes staff may use medications on residents to help make the shift easier by getting residents to sleep the entire time or most of it. This can be incredibly dangerous, especially when residents have pressure sores or who are at risk of pressure sores. Other times when a resident needs to be constantly checked by staff for pain, a resident who is knocked out due to sleep drugs may not be able to report pain and symptoms effectively which can be dangerous or even deadly.
Did a Provider Intentionally Giving a Patient Too Much Medication Cause Personal Injuries in Illinois? Call the Noll Law Office
The experienced nursing home abuse lawyers in Springfield at the Noll Law Office can help you and your family learn more about your rights under Illinois law when a nursing home was intentionally giving a patient too much medication. Whether accidentally or on purpose, any healthcare provider acting in a reckless, careless, or outright negligent manner may be liable for damages. The nursing home abuse and neglect team at the Noll Law Office provide free case evaluations for victims and their families. To ask questions and get answers relating to your nursing home case, call their personal injury lawyers by dialing (217) 414-8889 or by contacting them today.