Medication Administration Errors

There are several definitions which have been given to demonstrate medication errors. Indeed, medication errors might defined as that lead to appropriate drug use or patient harm.

Use special procedure for the use of high-risk medications using a multi-disciplinary approach, including written guidelines, checklists, pre-printed orders, double-checks, special packaging, special labeling, and education. (Institute of Medicine (IoM) Strategies Regarding Medication Practices, 2005).

Excellent outline for your quality improvement initiative that addresses medication errors. I like how you describe the closed-loop medication administration process that includes all members of the interprofessional team. Your references are also well researched and current. From the outline, it is unclear what the barriers and implementation strategy are to reduce medication errors. One suggestion I would make is to look at the grading rubric. There are four main points that the rubric requires to complete the objectives for the paper. I usually create headings that align with the rubric, this helps me organize my thoughts and to meet the objectives of the assignment.

When I say this, however, most people would picture the nurse giving the wrong medication due to lack of focus on the tasks at hand. While this could happen, I have noticed during my time at hospitals that the doctor orders are still hand written for the most part. Consequently, they can be very hard to be read legibly much less correctly translated into proper medication dosages. The first suggestion I would give to an organization would be that they required all orders to be submitted securely, by the doctors, to the pharmacy be electronic means.

McComas, Riingenm and Kim (2014), conducted a study that investigated the occurrence of medication errors and the efficiency of medication administration following the implementing an eMAR system. The study was conducted in an appropriate setting and all observed nurses volunteered for the study. Before implementing the eMARs mandatory class were provided and nurses were evaluated for competency. Data was collected by observation and nurses were randomly followed throughout a medication pass. Collected data consisted of medication errors, distractions during medication pass and amount of time spent administering medications.

The issues addressed are Findings 1 and 3: Finding 1 is patient medication errors are up and there is a perception of shady hiring practices and playing favorites. All employees are responsible for compliance. Policies and professional standards exist for the medical profession. The challenges will be reintroducing employees to Federal and state law that govern the profession. For hiring practices and playing favorites the challenges faced are the lack of compliance reporting structure or training for understanding compliance. There is a perception that work rules are not being enforced. Finding 3 is high job turnover and low employee morale. The challenges faced will be building communication strategies, building confidence in leadership,

The problem that the community is experiencing related to medication administration is that there is no system that can be used to check the medication before administering except the RNs and LPNs themselves. Staff members are using picture of patients in the system as a way to identify patients before administering medications. They do not have barcode reader to alert them when they are about to administer wrong medications. The community is aware of this problem and started to use the same process except that the medication is checked by three nurses instead of two after entering the information into the system.

As per our conversation, I’m submitting the documentation in support of the alleged allegations of client abuse (Michelle Rivera and Robin Jiles aka Davis) and medication errors (Andre Manley and numerous errors in discontinued documentation of medications in MAR) that have occurred and are occurring at our facility. In reference to the medication error, I would like to point out the discrepancy in the documents I mentioned, two medications arrive at the same time for A. Manley, as can be verified by the arrival sheet with a date of 4/10/15, however, they have a start date of 4/09/15 on the

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

In today’s current fast-paced and demanding field of heath care, medication administration has become complex and time-consuming task. Approximately one-third of the nurses’ time is used in medication administration. There is much potential for error because of the complexity of the medication administration process. Since nurses are the last ones to actually administer the medication to the patient therefore they become responsible for medication administration errors (MAE). Reasons for MAE may include individual factors, organizational factors or system factors. This paper will discuss the root causes analysis of MAE and strategies to prevent them.

Regardless of various methods in order to prevent medication mistake, nurses should playing a key role as a front line of take care of patients’ safety. According to the Institute for Safe Medication Practices and the Agency for Healthcare Research Quality (AHRQ), there are some recommendations in order to reduce medication administration through using three techniques such as unit dose dispensing, bar-coding medication administration (BCMA) and smart infusion pumps. Such combination strategies are effective to the wrong patient, the wrong medication, incorrect drug dose. Also it may reduce the incidence of medical errors associated with the administration of the drug at the wrong time, however, there is still arise the medication errors related

This research was embarked upon to present medication errors throughout a United Kingdom mental health hospital and to explore the dynamics that may cause an increase in medication administration errors. An evaluation of articles printed between 1963 to December 2013 was completed in order to find how many had been published on medication administration errors in mental health hospitals by direct observation. Out of 106 articles published there were only 2 that correlated with the mental health background.

Approximately 440,000 people die every year from preventable medication errors. This is is the third leading cause of death in the United States. Many of these errors could be avoided if Medical facilities would use standard precautions when administering medications. Health care workers should be better educated in patient care and preventable medical errors, this extra knowledge could save millions of lives and save millions of dollars. To keep these medication errors from occurring, it is important that all medical staff keep increasing their knowledge about medication errors and patient care. This will help decrease the death tolls in all Medical facilities.

Intravenous infusion therapy is an infusion of fluids directly into the patient’s bloodstream via a vein using an intravenous catheter. It is frequently used in hospital settings for patients that require a rapid onset of medication and for those who are unable to receive medications orally. According to Adams and Urban (2012), intravenous (IV) infusion is considered to be the most dangerous route of receiving medications because medication cannot be retrieved once it enters the bloodstream. Patients receiving IV infusion therapy require close monitoring for adverse reactions, which can happen immediately or it can take a couple of days for it to take effect. There are three types of IV administrations: large volume infusions, intermittent infusions, and IV push (p. 37). Patients receive IV therapy to for a variety of reasons including maintaining, restoring or replacing fluids and electrolytes, to administer medications, blood and blood products, nutritional feeds, chemotherapy, and pain mediations.

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