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
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.
There are many rules and precautions taken to ensure that medication errors do not happen. In nursing school students in the RNs and BSN program are both taught ways to not make medication errors. A study done by Margret Harris, Laura Pittiglio, Sarah Newton, and Gary Moore was done to see if simulation can be used to improve medication administration to reduce medical errors.
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
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
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).
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.
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 health information technology (HIT) topic selected is medication errors. In his March 17, 2017 article titled, “Poorly Implemented IT systems lead to medication errors” author Evan Sweeny discusses a the findings of Pennsylvania Safety Advisory which found that information technology (IT) systems implemented to prevent medication errors, may in fact contribute their occurrence. This paper will examine how HIT can both prevent and contribute to medication errors. The following elements are included, introduction, the rationale for selection, positive and negative impact of health information technology on medication errors, how informatics skill was relevant in assignment development, and
The purpose of this project is to decrease potential medication errors in the facility. This will be done by following some strategies:
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.
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).
For many patients the scariest part of being in the hospital is having to rely on other people to control your life changing decisions. One large part of this is the medications one is given while in our care. I can only imagine what it must be like for patients to have a stranger to come in and start administering drugs to me. This would be especially scary if I did not know what these medications did, or what negative effects could be caused by taking them. Unfortunately, the fear of medication errors that many patients have are not unfounded. Estimates range from 1.5 to 66 million patients a year have medication errors occur while they are in the care of health care professionals. Considering all of the technology we have at our
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.
Medication error (ME) is a significant problem within our health care system, in terms of patient harm and cost. In July 2002, the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations (JCAHO) cited the need to reduce medication errors as a top priority. Several studies suggest that medical error is the third-leading cause of death in the United States. In fact, at least 7,000 inpatient deaths occur annually as a direct
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