LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) — Federal statistics indicate that significant medication errors are discovered on average in one of every five of the state’s 234 nursing homes.
The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette reports federal data indicates that fines were levied in 43 cases since 2013, totaling about $1.3 million.
The U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services defines a significant medication error as one that discomforts or jeopardizes the health of a resident. Inspectors take three factors into account when determining whether a medication error is “significant”: the resident’s condition, the frequency of the error and the type of drug.
Arkansas’ significant error citation rates far surpass those in most other states, and Arkansas is the only state that has ranked in the top three for the percent of errors in each of the past five years.
