Medication Errors And Its Effects On Health Care

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

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.

Medication errors are a major issue affecting patient safety in hospitals, which can create deadly consequences for patients. It is crucial to identify and analyzed medication errors so healthcare professionals can pinpoint why medication errors occur and provide insight into how to prevent or reduce them.

This paper will focus on the role of the nurse, and will identify two serious flaws in the healthcare administration process that leaves patients vulnerable to these medication errors; while also offering research suggested solutions to help prevent many of these errors in the future.

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

Medication errors originate in multiple ways such as “professional practice, health care products, procedures, and systems, including prescribing; order communication; product labeling, packaging, and nomenclature; compounding; dispensing; distribution; administration; education; monitoring; and use” (U.S. Food and Drug Administration, 2015). Many patients may be quick to criticize medication errors to be the responsibility of the professional who administers the medication rather than the manufacturing, production and data entry processes.

Medication administration is a multi-step process that is handled by multiple healthcare professionals. It begins with the prescription that is transcribed mostly by the physician, then dispensed by the pharmacist, and ends with the administration of the medication by the nurse. Throughout this multi-step process, medication errors can occur at any stage of the medication administration process. As expressed by L. Cloete in “Reducing medication errors in nursing practice,” “One third of the errors that harm patients occur during the nurse administration phase: administering medication to patients is therefore a high-risk activity.” Because the nurse is responsible for administering medication to the patient, he/she is considered and viewed as the most accountable in regards to the patient’s safety. Medication errors are one of the most common medical errors that can result in an adverse event that may pose a serious threat to the patient’s safety and well-being. In the article, “An inside look into the factors contributing to medication errors in the clinical nursing practice,” Savvato and Efstratios defined and characterized medication error as “any preventable event that may cause or lead to inappropriate medication use or patient harm while the medication is in the control of the health care professional, patient, or consumer. Such events may be related to professional practice, health care products, procedures, and systems, including prescribing; order communication;

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 are a one of the biggest causes of patient’s death. “Based on an analysis of prior research, the Johns Hopkins study estimates that more than 250,000 Americans die each year from medical errors. On the CDC's official list, that would rank just behind heart disease and cancer, which each took about 600,000 lives in 2014, and in front of respiratory disease, which caused about 150,000 deaths.”(Hopkins). “But no one knows the exact toll taken by medical errors. In significant part, that's because the coding system used by CDC to record death certificate data doesn't capture things like communication breakdowns, diagnostic errors and poor judgment that cost lives, the study says”(Hopkins). Medication errors can happen to anyone because humans are not perfect and they make mistakes. The lesson to be taken away from an error is how to prevent future ones.

preventing errors from reaching patients.” (Koczmara, C., Dueck, C., & Jelincic, V., 2006). It is because of this that every effort should be made with regard to implementing effective strategies to reduce the risk of medication errors. The five rights, right route, right

Which according to the FDA Medication Error is the top cause of injuries and death in the United States? However back in 1999 the Institute of Medicine estimated 98,000 people died in the hospital yearly because of the medication error… Which these statistic tops the death rate linked to breast cancer, motor vehicle accidents and also acquired immunodeficiency syndrome. However, the cost of errors can reach up to the outstanding balance of 75 billion annually.

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