Dealing With Medication Errors

Nurses are responsible for multiple patients on any given day making medication errors a potential problem in the nursing field. Medication administration not only encompasses passing medication to the patients yet begins with the physician prescribing the medication, pharmacy filling the correct prescription and ending with the nurse administering and monitoring the patient for any adverse effect from the medication. According to the National Coordinating Council for Medication Error Reporting and Prevention (NCCMERP), ‘A medication error refers to any preventable event that may cause or lead to inappropriate medication use or patient harm while the medication is in the control of the healthcare professional,

When it comes to medication errors several things may occur such as adverse drug event, unexpected deterioration, and even death in severe cases. AHRQ (2015) states, “an adverse drug event (ADE) is defined as harm experienced by a patient as a result of exposure to a medication, and ADEs account for nearly 700,000 emergency department visits 100,000 hospitalizations each year.” There are many ways that errors may occur such as dispensary errors, prescription errors

Medication errors are the leading cause of morbidity and preventable death in hospitals (Adams). In fact, approximately 1.5 million Americans are injured each year as a result of medication errors in hospitals (Foote). Not only are medication errors harmful to patients but medication errors are very expensive for hospitals. Medication errors cost America’s health care system 3.5 billion dollars per year (Foote).Errors in medication administration occurs when one of the five rights of medication administration is omitted. The five rights are: a) the right dose, b) the right medication, c) the right patient, d) the right route of administration, and e) the right time of delivery (Adams). Medication administration is an essential part of

Medication errors are focused on: terms and definitions; incidence of and harm; risk factors; avoidance; disclosure, legalities & consequences (Wittich, Burkle & Lanier, 2014). Medication errors categories have been developed by the American Society of Health-System Pharmacists (ASHP). Examples of these categories are based on prescribing, omitting drugs not administered, timing, unauthorized drug, wrong dosage, wrong preparation, expired drug, not using laboratory data to monitor toxicity (Wittich, Burkle & Lanier, 2014). Additionally, this article examines in depth common causes leading to medication errors, drug nomenclature, similar sounding drugs, unapproved abbreviations and handwriting, medical staff shortages and manufacturer medication shortages. Even though this article provides an informative overview for physicians, other allied health personnel may benefit too. This is valuable knowledge for the health care professional not just physicians in order to provide safe care for their

Errors made while administering medications is one of the most common health care errors reported. It is estimated that 7,000 hospitals deaths yearly are attributed to medication administration errors.

Medication errors in the hospital setting have significant potential to result in serious injury and even death, thus effecting patients, families, health care professionals, and hospitals. Approximately 400,000 adverse drug effects (ADE) occur each year (Institute of Medicine, 2006). Considering that not all medication errors are discovered and reported, this number is likely to be underestimated. These errors not only contribute to patient morbidity and mortality, but also cause increased length of stay and hospital expenses. It is estimated by the Institute of Medicine (IOM) that $3.5 billion is spent annually as a result of ADEs (IOM, 2006).

There are many factors that contribute to medication errors resulting in consequences to both patient and nurse. Factors that can contribute to errors include illegible handwritten drug orders, confusing drug names, and the use of nonstandard or unclear abbreviations (Neal, 2006). For the patient, the effect of drug errors can range from no side effects to death. For the nurse who commits a medication error the consequences can range from additional training and supervision to lawsuits and revocation of licensure. Medication errors can occur at any stage in the process of delivering medications to patients, from the originating prescriber to the pharmacy, but the majority of medication errors occur during administration.

Research shows that medication error in hospitals and other health care settings leads to 373,000 preventable adverse drug events (ADEs) per year and that these events would increase to 478,000 within 20 years in the absence of additional preventive measures (Federal Register, 2004).

A medication error refers to an error (of commission or omission) at any step along the pathway that begins when a clinician prescribes a medication and ends when the patient actually receives the medication. Preventable adverse drug events result from a medication error that reaches the patient and causes any degree of harm. It is generally estimated that about half of ADEs are preventable. Medication errors that do not cause any harm—either because they are intercepted before reaching the patient, or by luck—are often called potential ADEs. An ameliorable ADE is one in which the patient experienced harm from a medication that, while not completely preventable, could have been mitigated. Finally, a certain percentage of patients will experience ADEs even when medications are prescribed and administered appropriately; these are considered adverse drug reactions or non-preventable ADEs (and are popularly known as side

Medication errors are a big deal because you are at risk of ending someone's life by a simple mistake because you didn't recheck the medication you are administering to the patient. In 2007, a nine year old named Alyssa Hemmelgarn became sick and she kept taking medicine but wasn't getting any better. She was sick with swollen glands and cold sores. When Alyssa and her mother went to the doctors , the doctor diagnosed her with leukemia. A week passed by and she was getting treatment. Seems like she was getting better with all the medication she has been taking until one day she started receiving the symptoms and soon after passed away in the hospital. It turns out that the doctor noted her as “anxious” so they medicated her with ativan. The

My experience with issue of medication error occurred during my pre-graduate clinical in a long term facility, I and the preceptor were administering medications during lunch time. One of the residents came from leave of absence, prior to her LOA, the daughter who was the POA was given the resident’s medications, including insulin. When she returned to the facility, her medication was administered as per scheduled time without having knowledge when the last insulin was given, fifteen minutes thereafter, the personal care provider noticed that this particular resident was not eating and appears to be sweating, the PCP reported to us, on assessment she was found to be shaking, sweating and loss of consciousness and her glucose level was

Medication errors occur more often than they should. It is recorded that medication errors occur in children every eight minutes or in every 25 out of 1900 children. Adults older than age of 65 are seven times at a greater risk of being victim of medication errors than those adults under the of age 65. What is a medication error? A medication error is a event that may cause or lead to inappropriate medication use or patient harm while the medication is in control of the healthcare professional, patient, or a consumer. The patient has to actually receive the drug in order for it to be considered a medication error. Detrimental patient outcomes are associated with medication errors. A few of the many harmful effects include medication overdose, stroke, heart attack, organ damage, harm to fetus, paralysis, and death. The numbers of occurring medication errors are staggering but they can be prevented. There a precautions to take in order to safely administer and prevent medication errors, which requires following the “six rights of medication administration”. These six rights are as followed, right patient, right drug, right dose, right route, right time & date, and the right documentation.

Studies have shown that medication errors outputs ranging from deadly side effects or appear to be low-risk and some of them do not carry any effects on the patient's health (Crawford et al., 2003; Handler et al., 2007).Critical medication errors results were categorized to three major outcomes : 1) patient death; 2) permanent patient harm; or 3) the need for treatment with another drug, increased length of stay, patient transfer to a higher level of care (e.g., intensive care unit) or other needed intervention to prevent permanent impairment or damage.(Crawford et al., 2003). The National Patient Safety Agency revealed that MEs in all care settings in the UK occurred in each stage of the medication treatment process, with 16% in prescribing,

Investigating and implementing innovative solutions for the growing problems of adverse drug reactions (ADRs) and medication errors, is at the focal point of healthcare research today. Researchers state, that the fourth leading cause of deaths in America are due to medication errors. According to CERT, “The Institute of Medicine reported in January of 2000 that from 44,000 to 98,000 deaths occur annually from medical error. Of this total, an estimated 7,000 deaths occur due to ADRs,” (2016). Understanding the primary cause of prescription errors is the first step towards resolving them. Medication errors develop when the rate at which drugs are prescribed is too high, the rate of errors increases drastically when more than four drugs are

Medication error is one of the biggest problems in the healthcare field. Patients are dying due to wrong drug or dosage. Medication error is any preventable incident that leads to inappropriate medication use or harms the patient while the medication is in the control of the health care professional,or patient (U.S. Food and Drug Administration, 2015). It is estimated about 44,000 inpatients die each year in the United States due to medication errors which were indeed preventable (Mahmood, Chaudhury, Gaumont & Rust, 2012). There are many factors that contribute to medication error. However, the most common that factors are human factors, right patient information, miscommunication of abbreviations, wrong dosage. Healthcare providers do not intend to make medication errors, but they happen anyways. Therefore, nursing should play a tremendous role to reduce medication error