Medication Error In Health Care

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.

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.

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).

of the nursing team. Medication errors were not reported back to the nurse manager due to fear

Older adults are at high risk for adverse effects of medication error more than their counteract younger adults. This is because they depend on more than one medication in order to treat or prevent disease, syndromes and sickness (Lindenberg, 2010). It is inevitable that the elderly face adverse effects of drugs while on medication especially when they still live independently. However, chances of errors in hospitals and care homes are more frequent when the medication process connects several departments (Belen et. al., 2009). Therefore, tactical measures are required in the provision of drug therapy in order to optimize safe medication in older adults. This paper discusses the issue by analyzing the existing structure of administering medication, reviewing the occurrence of medication errors; evaluating systems developed to advance safe medication administration. Finally, addressing the implication for professional nursing practice.

This study described discharge prescription medication errors written for emergency department patients. This study used content analysis in a cross-sectional design to systematically categorize prescription errors found in a report of 1000 discharge prescriptions submitted in the electronic medical record in February 2015. Two pharmacy team members reviewed the discharge prescription list for errors. Open-ended data were coded by an additional rater for agreement on coding categories. Coding was based upon majority rule. Descriptive statistics were used to address the study objective. Categories evaluated were patient age, provider type, drug class, and type and time of error. The discharge prescription error rate out of 1000 prescriptions

Nursing medication errors were examined by having nurses take surveys based on their perception of why medication errors are occurring as well as visiting their work setting and observing any errors. Nurses are encouraged to take precaution when administering medications to ensure that the correct medication as well as the dose, is given to the correct patient. It is imperative for hospitals to enforce medication stipulations to ensure that nurses are double checking medication labels. Studies show that causes of medication errors are due to nurse’s not understanding protocol, administration errors related to overworked weary

The incidents of medication errors are complex, and variety of factors including human error, organizational or systems factors, slips and lapses, deviations from safe practice, workload factors, communication, knowledge deficits, environmental or worksite issues, inter-professional issues and concerns, and others contribute to errors (McKeon, Fogarty & Hegney, 2006: Lawton, Carruthers, Gardner, Wright & McEachan, 2012; Fasolino & Synder, 2012; Keers, Williams, Unver, Tastan & Akbayrak, 2012; Cooke, & Ashcroft, 2013; Shahrokhi, Ebrahimpour & Ghodous, 2013; Donaldson, Aydin, Fridman, & Foley, 2014; Karavasiliadou & Athanasakis, 2014; Niemann, Bertsche, Meyrath, Koepf, Traiser, et al., 2015; Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, 2015; Parry, et al., 2015; Norman, Monteiro, Sherbino, Ilgen, Schmidt &

One of the many responsibilities of a nurse is administering medications. Improper transcription, dispensing, administering, and reporting can result in medication errors. The article Simple Steps to Reduce Medication Errors recognizes how detrimental errors can be to the patient and the facility (Chu, 2016). An error in medication can lead to an extended stay for the patient, resulting in serious harm or death.

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,

The population that is affected by medication errors are everyday people. They are vulnerable patients who reside in assisted or residential facilities, while relying on non-licensed staff members to administer their medication or provide care. While the clients are vulnerable, the rely solely the fate of others for medication administration as well as care assistance.

Nurses are the backbone of the healthcare system and the last line of defense in ensure safe medication administration. It is the responsibility of the nurse to practice safe patient care and have responsible knowledge of medications. All too often, however, medication errors do occur. Over 733 nurses surveyed in a study by Urima University of Medical Sciences, have exposed the occurrences of medication errors, the reasons that these errors transpired, and how they feel they could have been prevented. Along with making the actual errors, reporting them is also a major barrier to safe, honest nursing care. The importance of patient safety and accurate reporting is a cornerstone of nursing practice.

The health is considered as the most important issue in all societies and patient safety is one of the key principles in health care systems (1,2). When human health is threatened by pathogens, medicine therapy is most common clinical intervention. The medication errors are the most common types of medical errors that affect patient safety and health directly. A study released in 2016 found medical error is the third leading cause of death in the United States, after heart disease and cancer. Nowadays, the prevalence of medication error is used as an indicator for estimating patient safety (2-9).

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

According to Caroll & Brown (2011), medication errors occur in every health care setting, including the physician‘s office. It is estimated that there are two hundred and eighteen thounsand, medication- related deaths annually, with a total cost of approximately one hundred and seventy-seven million. Events related to medications are the third – leading cause of death in the United States after heart disease and cancer (Caroll & Brown, 2011). The first steps of prescribing and administration are where error is mostly the highest in hospitals. Medication errors can include the following: wrong dosage, wrong route, wrong frequency (of rate for IV), wrong medication wrong choice of medication for condition, wrong time, wrong administration technique, wrong patient missed dose, known drug interaction, known allergy to drug, wrong reason (Caroll & Nakuruma,2011). Ideally, the organization will introduce a reporting system strategy that is specific to the clinical area to focus on this vital risk management issue at hand (Caroll & Nakuruma, 2011).