Vicarious liability in private and public dental clinics
Loading...
Date
2014
Authors
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
South African Dental Association
Abstract
A 25 year-old patient attended the clinic to have four teeth
extracted under conscious sedation. Following a thorough
examination and medical history it was found that she had a
heart murmur. The dentist prescribed an antibiotic to be taken
one hour prior to the dental treatment. The patient reported
that she was allergic to penicillin and this was confirmed on
her medical history chart. Consequently, a prescription was
given for a 3g sachet of erythromycin as an oral suspension.
The following day, the patient went to the pharmacy to obtain
her medication, but was informed that they only had amoxycillin
available in 3g sachets. The pharmacist telephoned the
dental clinic to request permission from the dentist to change
the prescription to amoxycillin, and as the dentist was unavailable,
a staff member gave him the permission to issue the
amoxycillin. When the patient came to collect the prescription
she was not informed that it had been changed and assumed
that her prescription did not contain penicillin.
Subsequently, the patient attended for dental treatment carried
out and informed the dental assistant that after taking
her antibiotic she was feeling unwell. Treatment was to be
carried out under sedation and the anaesthetist, realising that
the patient was allergic to penicillin and had taken amoxycillin,
administered antihistamine. No treatment was carried out at
that appointment and the patient was discharged home by
the anaesthetist when he felt that she was well enough and
in no medical danger. However, when the patient returned
home, she became unwell, suffered a fall and sustained an
injury to her right hand. The dentist admitted that there had
been a lack of communication between the dental surgery
and the pharmacy and that as a result, amoxycillin had been
prescribed despite the fact that the patient was allergic to it.
Unfortunately the pharmacist was unable to identify the member
of staff to whom he had spoken and who had given him
permission to change the prescription.
Description
Keywords
Ethics, Prescription, Antibiotic, Allergic reaction
Citation
Naidoo, S. (2014). Vicarious liability in private and public dental clinics. South African Dental Journal, 69 (3): 130 - 131