Medication Errors In Health Care

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

Research shows that medication error in hospitals and other health care settings leads to 373,000 preventable adverse drug events (ADEs) per year and that these events would increase to 478,000 within 20 years in the absence of additional preventive measures (Federal Register, 2004).

A major concern or challenge of ABC hospital is a recent incident of medication administration error in its emergency room (ER) which almost resulted in the death of a 55-year-old female patient. This is a case of medication administration through the wrong route. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) defines a 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; product labeling, packaging, and nomenclature; compounding;

In 1999, the Institute of Medicine (IOM) “Too Err is Human” estimated 98,000 deaths yearly due to medical error. Many of the errors are the result of adverse drug events, most of which occur during the prescribing and administration stages of medication administration (Guo, Iribarren, Kapsandoy, Perri, and Staggers, 2011). These errors are a significant cause of morbidity and mortality in hospitalized patients. One report estimates that when all types of errors are accounted for, every hospitalized patient can expect on average one type of medication error per day and during 2006, adverse drug events resulted in approximately 400,000 cases of error at a cost of over $3.5 billion (pp. 202-224). Studies have demonstrated a

The words medication error elicit fear in every nurse. According to Stefanacci and Riddle (2016), preventable medication errors are responsible for third reason of death apart from heart disease and cancer in the United States. As a nurse, it is important to obtain skills and knowledge to prevent them as these errors could result in extended hospitalisation of patients, simultaneously a burden of health care cost. These errors could be reduced by identifying the problems which lead to medication errors and following certain protocols in a coordinated environment.

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 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 &

The Institute of Medicine (IOM) report, To Err is Human, highlighted the prevalence and devastation caused by medication errors in the US healthcare system. The 2000 Report declared that the rates of medication errors and subsequent adverse drug events (ADEs) are unacceptable and immediate action to decrease these rates should be a national priority. In a later Report, the IOM committee estimated that nearly 1.5 million ADEs result from preventable medication errors annually, contributing to over $3.5 billion in avoidable healthcare costs.

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 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.

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.

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.

The administration of medication can be associated with a significant risk with it is recognized as a central feature of the nursing role. It should continue in order to avoid a possible medical malpractice continuous care. Nursing staff have a unique role usually given to patients to manage their medication and responsibilities, then they can report these identified medication errors. Some of the most distinguishable events can be related to errors in professional practice, prescribing, dispensing, distribution, and education or monitoring. Since medication errors can arise at any state of the administration process, it is essential for nursing staff to be attentive of the most commonly encountered errors. For the most part, the common of the perceptible aspects related with medication errors are due to minimal awareness about hospital policies, inappropriate implementation or latent conditions (Farinde, n.d).

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

The problem of patient’s adherence to their medication regime and proper education on their medication appears in this literature. 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 and 100,000 hospitalizations each year (Medication Errors 2017). According to the World Health Organization, Medication errors cause at least one death every day and injure approximately 1.3 million people annually in the United States alone. Globally, the cost associated with medication errors has been estimated at US$ 42 billion annually or almost 1% of total global health expenditure (WHO 2017). Since the Institute of Medicine (IOM)