Geriatric Medication Errors

The most important and complex system factor is medical administration. It includes multiple process in corporates prescribing, interpreting, apportioning, and overseeing medications and checking patient reaction (Anderson, 2010

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 a reoccurring issue that has plagued the medical field since the beginning of drug administration. In order to understand how to handle medication errors, one must first understand what a medication error is. The concept of medication error can be defined as: “any preventable event that may cause or lead to inappropriate medication use or harm to a patient” (Kee, 2012, 125). Examples of medication errors include: misreading a patient’s medical file, not clarifying illegible prescriptions, an incomplete patient assessment, confusing look-alike and sound-alike medications, and lack of better understanding if a medication can be crushed or split. To better understand medication errors and medication safety one must understand the impact it can have on the medical community and patient care, ways to prevent medication errors, and what should be done in a situation where a medication error has occurred.

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

Majority of errors are thought to be preventable, and multiple interventions may be required to significantly decrease medication errors, particularly when patients transition between healthcare settings.

Many medication errors occur as a result of lack of adequate knowledge and skills in medication error. Nurses play a vital role in safe medication administration. Nurses should have adequate skill and knowledge to prevent medication error. Yearly competence test in medication administration and periodic education and training is vital to improve the knowledge and skills. Prescription errors are the common cause of medication error. Physicians should take full advantage of computerized physician order entry system (CPOE) to improve the medication safety. Verbal and written orders should replace with CPOE. Distraction can cause medication error and avoiding unnecessary distraction during medication administration can prevent a number of

The Causes of Medication Errors in Nursing Medication errors are among the most common type of medical error, and it is widely known that the consequences can be very significant for the patient. Medication errors also affect healthcare individuals leading to personal and professional embarrassment and emotional trauma of involvement in the adverse outcomes (Pezzolesi, Ghaleb, Kostrzewski, & Dhillon, 2013). The entire goal of nursing is to maintain the safety of every client, although it is no easy task. Medical management is one of the most labor intensive, and possibly one of the most risk-laden duties performed in the provision of patient care (Leufer & Cleary-Holdforth, 2013). The purpose of this paper is to determine and discuss the

Medication errors have always been a problem; even today they still loom about health care facilities such as hospitals and assisted living homes. A medication error is as an error in the process of providing care for a patient that has potential to harm the patient. There also many different ways those medication errors can occur, prescription, preparation, distribution, transcription, administration and monitoring. “It has been estimated by the Institute of Medicine that medication errors cause 1 of 131 outpatient and 1 of 854 inpatient deaths,” (Wittich et al, 2013). Of those different ways medication errors can happen, all of them have multiple factors that go into them that can cause an error to occur. Medication errors cause many

Within the first seven days of admission and readmission in a skilled nursing facility older people have an increase in medication errors. The study was put together to evaluate the process-related factors and structure that my cause and increase in medication errors as well as harm. The residents in North Caroline skilled nursing facilities during months of October 2006 to September 2007 showed medication errors from the medication error quality initiative-individual error database. When looking at the prescribing errors they were much less common than administration errors. However, they were much more likely to cause harm to patients. On the contrary looking at structure and process measures of quality, they were related to the volume

Patient safety has been described as the prevention of errors and adverse effects to patients associated with health care (WHO, 2016). Medication errors is a prevalent patient safety issue in today’s health care environment. It is estimated that approximately 10,000 preventable errors and 2000 preventable deaths occur in the Republic of Ireland alone. That means 1 in 10 people experience a medication error once entering a hospital (Oglesby, 2012). Although some of these errors may be minor many can be detrimental as some medication have more adverse symptoms than others.

One of the greatest fears of any nurse is harming or killing a patient by making a critical medication error. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration reports that a person dies accidently every day from a medication error and approximately 1.3 million sustain an injury from medication errors (U.S. Food and Drug Administration, 2016). Medication errors can result from the initial prescribing of the order, transcribing the order, entering the order, dispensing the medication, repackaging the medication with improper labeling, administering the medication incorrectly,

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

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

Serious and fatal incidence can occur during medication administration. Errors occur and harm at least 1.5 million people a year because of neglectful practice or lack of knowledge of medication. The Joint Commission has set medication administration as the third national patient safety goal. Healthcare facilities all across the world have implemented protocols for their staff to be in compliance of those goals. There are different type of medication errors that can be made. Adverse drug errors are errors that result from medical interventions related to a drug. Preventable adverse errors result from an error or equipment failure. Medication errors are errors that