Medication Errors In Research

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

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.

Medication errors in the hospital setting have significant potential to result in serious injury and even death, thus effecting patients, families, health care professionals, and hospitals. Approximately 400,000 adverse drug effects (ADE) occur each year (Institute of Medicine, 2006). Considering that not all medication errors are discovered and reported, this number is likely to be underestimated. These errors not only contribute to patient morbidity and mortality, but also cause increased length of stay and hospital expenses. It is estimated by the Institute of Medicine (IOM) that $3.5 billion is spent annually as a result of ADEs (IOM, 2006).

Some errors affects patient minimally, whereas other medication errors results in patient morbidity and mortality. Despite the efforts, medication errors remains problematic in the area of healthcare. It is the health care organizations biggest challenge. Numerous research has been done to identify factors that would reduce medication error, however the emphasis on error management has been minimally to nonexistent (Admi, et al., 2013).

Two words any nurse dreads to hear is ‘medication error’, knowing that potential harm has been or could have been caused to a patient from a simple mistake. The Texas Board of Nursing (TBON, n.d.) describes medication errors as an “inappropriately prescribed, dispensed, or administered” medication causing a circumstances or events that have the ability to cause harm (Position Statement 15.17). Director of medical and surgical unit, R. Crowdis, stated each healthcare institute have their own policies in place to prevent medication errors and reporting any medication errors that occur (Personal Communication, June 11, 2016). Upon reviewing current hospital policies, the interview focused on prevention methods of medication errors, how to encourage

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

The purpose of this project is to decrease potential medication errors in the facility. This will be done by following some strategies:

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 higher incidence rate from the above suggested that the medication errors is an issue which is preventing the quality service. The puzzle often starts with whose problem is it. the medication error is the problem of all health care professionals and due to this errors the patients has to suffer. While discussing or thinking about an issue, possible solution is already on its way. But the

Medication administration is the foremost responsibility of a nurse (Sung et al. 2008). Pronovost et al. in 2005 mentioned that errors occur during medication administration which jeopardise in patients safety. Medication errors are the most common type of errors in the healthcare centres ultimately resulting in the high financial costs to

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

There are fore main reason for Medication Error. First, patient knowledge deficiency such as allergy information. Second, medication knowledge deficiency such as drug compatibility. Third, non-adherence to policies and procedures. For example, order the drug in non-verbal or abbreviation ways so that led to error. Before administer the drug, the nurse did not check the name. The health giver did not follow the nursing, pharmacy or treatment policy Forth, miscellaneous for example: the caregiver forget to administrate the drug, or equipment failure. There are many drugs names look alike or sound alike another, so that make the caregiver confuse between them. The top ten drugs that involved in the errors are: insulin 8% Next, the Morphine 2.3%