Medication Best Practices Essay

For the purposes of this paper, the author will only focus on National Patient Safety Goals 01.01.01: Identifying patients correctly and 01.03.01 Eliminate transfusion errors related to patient misidentification.

1. The main legislation that governs the use of medication is The Medicines Acts 1968. The following is a list of legislations that have a direct impact upon the handling of medication within a social care setting.

Insures all tablets are placed together safely for the service user to access, in line with the carers no contact method. Also facilitates and promote independent administering.

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

The process from the time an order is received by the pharmacy to the time the medication is dispended is first is receiving the prescription, and verifying the patient information to ensure you have their correct information, like correct name address, phone number, and if they have any known allergies they know of at the time. As well as verifying and updating insurance information to see how the prescription is going to be paid, wheather its by insurance or out of pocket payment. Pharmacist track where the prescription is originated from and verify if the prescription is a legitimate prescription and has not been tamper with. The pharmacy checks the prescriptions by using prescription origin codes, which are in the pharmacy computer software.

The oral dosage would be 6 - 10 mg/kg PO (mixed in cola or other beverage) given 30 minutes before procedure.

Medication should be initiated at the lowest available dose and titrated to the lowest effective dose.

In order to gain the full benefit of your medication, you must take it as directed. As most prescriptions are daily use, it’s important you remember to take your medication every day. Incorporate

Administering medication requires the understanding of how the medication is to enter the body such as orally, transdermal, or intravenous. It also requires the knowledge of when the medication needs to be administered, the possible side effects, and its toxicity. Doctors, nurses, and a few other

It is estimated that 20 percent of prescriptions that are written are never filled. The high cost of medication is one of the reasons that many people do not get their prescriptions filled. Going without needed medication can have adverse effects on one's health. Below are some things that can be done to save money on prescription drugs:

One of the major concerns in health care is medication administration errors, its complications, and their impacts of the health care system. The best feature for adequate medication is safety, which stipulates that the healthcare

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.

In the United States, approximately 20% of 30-day hospital readmissions are due to inconsistent transition of care (TOC).5, 13 This means the expenditure of billions of unnecessary dollars that could have been prevented if the patients had received proper, coordinated, and consistent care from discharge back to the community. In fact, Medicare reports show more than 17 billion dollars a year are spent on preventable readmissions, leading cause being improper medication usage after discharge.1 Up to 2% of these medication discrepancies were life-threatening and even led to death.7 Medication discrepancies often occur when patients have a lack of understanding of discharge medication plans, inadequate literacy to understand the dismissal notes, become nonadherent to medication regimen, and/or experience adverse drug events.8, 11 Expanding community pharmacists’ involvement in post-discharge TOC and improving communication will benefit patients, healthcare providers, and the healthcare system through decreased hospital readmission, medication related adverse events, and financial burden.

Radley, D., Wasserman, M., Olsho, L., Shoemaker, S., Spranca, M., & Bradshaw, B. (2013). Reduction in medications errors in hospitals due to adop

Prescription medication is an important part of healthcare and a must have for patients because it helps manage a lot of symptoms and diseases. It can help kill bacteria causing patients to feel ill, it can also reduce pain and suffering for others. However, most mediations have some type of adverse side effects as it is made from chemicals processes or extracts from herbal plants. There are contraindications and cautions to every medication in which we have to be aware of when prescribing the medication; there is also drug to drug interactions that may occur. To help prevent medication errors we can use online resources to look for any drug to drug interactions and contraindication/adverse effects. We also need to stress the importance