The Star Tribune reports that a resident of an Owatonna nursing home deprived its resident of crucial anxiety drug (lorazepam) for 10 days. Then the nursing home gave the resident 10 times the prescribed dosage. The resident died the next day.
According to an investigation by the Minnesota Department of Health, the resident’s family members said that that nursing home never notified them of the medication errors or that the death was under investigation.
The MDH found that the facility, Owatonna Care Center, was responsible for the medication errors that preceded the resident’s death. Investigators found that “26 omitted doses of the medication occurred with multiple employees over several days.” MDH investigators also found that some drugs were missing at the nursing home and could not be accounted for by its staff.
There’s no room for careless management of medications in a skilled nursing facility. If a nursing home has exposed your loved one to a medication error, contact the Kosieradzki Smith Law Firm online or toll free at (877) 552-2873 for a free initial consultation.
