Double Check Conclusion

Goal three by the National Patient Safety Goal for 2014 is to use medicines safely. Many errors occur regularly with medications which is why communication is so important with the doctors, nurses and patients. One process that Joint Commission requires in accredited HCO’s is medication reconciliation “creating the most accurate list possible off all medications a patient is taking, including drug name, dosage, frequency, and route, and comparing that list against the physician’s admission, transfer, and/or discharge orders with the goal of providing correct medications to the patients at all transition points within the hospital (Finkelman & Kenner, 2012, p. 388)”. Ensuring medication reconciliation to the patient, health providers and any new consults that are

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 Reconciliation is defined by the Joint Commission as the process of checking and rechecking a patient’s current medication list to the patient’s orders. Within a MedRec program, three steps must be followed to ensure patients have the correct medications at admission and discharge: Verification, Clarification, and Reconciliation (Greenwald et al., 2010; Ruggiero et al,. 2015). MedRec should not occur once, but multiple times especially when a patient moves from department to department. The more a patient moves, the more liable they are for a medication error due to poor communication. MedRec is done for the simple reason of catching those medication errors and correcting them before they can do any harm (The Joint Commission, 2006). Medication errors effect nearly 1.5 million people who enter the hospital setting in the USA. At least every patient has one medication discrepancy between admission and discharge, which leads to rehospitalizations due to hospital-setting medication errors (Institute of Medicine as cited by Wilson et al,. 2015). With nurses at the forefront of a patient’s medication regime, pressure is put on them to provide the necessary education and safety to prevent medication related rehospitalizations. Included in the causes for medication errors is miscommunication between departments taking care of the same patient (Allison et al., 2015). Many medication errors are preventable by the implementation of electronic orders. The use of electronic

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

This integrative review sought to identify and understand the impact of information technology in on medication errors. The review of 14 papers shows that the implementation of medication management systems, which include CPOE, BCMA and automated dispensing machines has successfully reduced medication errors and adverse medication events significantly, particularly the two most susceptible stages of prescription and administration of drugs (Armada et al., 2014).

The United State, health care system wastes approximately 700 billion dollars yearly on systematic inefficiencies such as unnecessary procedures, frauds, administrative practices and errors ( Plonien, 2013). Medication administration error differs across the literature, it may be defined as a preventable event or deviation from procedures, policies and/or best practices that may result to inappropriate desired outcome in a patient. The vast majority of medication error occurs due to deviation in the standard procedure for medication administration ( Admi, et al., 2013).

Nurses are the health care professionals that collect and prepare medications for patients. They examine the doctor’s orders to see what medications patients are prescribed. Errors can occur in the distribution of these medications. As a result, the nursing ethic of do no harm may not occur. According to McIntyre, Thomlinson, & McDonald, “nurses are held in high regard” (2006, p.360). As such, nurses must keep this positive concept, as we are the health professionals that care for people when they are at their most vulnerable. There is a need for nurses to reflect back to nursing school and use the information taught to guide decisions regarding medications and their administration. This paper will examine medication administration errors

The IOM report To Err is Human (2000), categorized various types of errors based on the research of Leape, Woods & Hatlie,. (1993). The research conducted by Leape, et al. (1993) reveals that 70% of errors were preventable. Despite the ideal desire to be perfect healthcare professionals, we are all human; and no one is perfect. The primary focus in terms of medication errors is prevention, however the

The purpose of this project is to decrease potential medication errors in the facility. This will be done by following some strategies:

Medication error can be very deadly, and mainly happens in the healthcare settings today in American. Medication Error cause around 10,000 of death and deaths every year far as given the wrong medication, to an patient can have a very bad allergic reaction from that wrong drug was given. On the other hand the most errors may happen if the drug name are similar to each other, also if it’s a sign of poor hand writing or poor transcriptions as well. To try to prevent mistakes is to pay an close attention to the medication, make sure you ask the patient his or her Date of Birth, and you can also scan the patient arm band. I think the safes way to go in check it 3 times before you initially give the patient the medication. Just to be on the

The authors suggest that this error is a lead cause of hospital deaths related to medication errors. The research is done by surveying those in the fields of nursing, pharmacy, and other prescribers to test their knowledge, experience, and capabilities on handling high-alert medications in a hospital. The study shows that results varies between each perspective field of study. The survey and the research show that more discipline on handling high-alert medication is needed to prevent unnecessary medical errors by prescription. The article discusses that continuing education is required to hold the health providers accountable in the medication use process. This research will be beneficial to my research paper since the source provides detail information in regard to prescription errors that is a major cause of hospital deaths in the United

Doctors, practicing nurses, therapist and pharmacists are authorized to look after our health, but as they’re human too, even they make mistakes. Evidently, when a healthcare professional make a mistake, the consequences can be deadly for the patient. While medical errors surrounding misdiagnoses, administering of anesthesia and surgery are well-recorded, medication and prescription errors are a growing concern.

As the health care industry continues to grow rapidly and patient’s diagnosis is becoming more complex, providing safe, reliable care have never been all the more difficult. Medications, depending on its utilization can cause desired therapeutic effects as well as harmful effects to one’s health, especially when error is committed. Medication error is an on growing issue that continues to affect the quality of patient care. And the need for better error avoidance strategies or medication management practice and administration system is becoming crystal clear as the number of medication errors are increasing daily in the health care industry.

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