Prescribing Error Rates Between Ophthalmic And Non Ophthalmic Prescriptions For Patients Admitted Into An Acute Hospital Setting

During my assessment I used the “Seven principles of good prescribing” to aid my decision making (National Prescribing Centre (NPC) 1999). This structured framework allows the prescriber to assess all appropriate factors and problems and make an informed decision whether to issue a prescription or discuss other options with the patient Humphries (2002). Examples of these options would be offering advice about their condition/problem or informing them that the treatment/items they require would be cheaper over the counter, thus making optimum use of the NHS budget, Prescription Pricing Authority (PPA) (2003).

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

In the UK, there are more than 1 billion scripts prescribed and dispensed every year (HSCIC, 2013). There are over 12,000 pharmacies in the UK, and approximately 1.6 million people visit a pharmacy every day (HSCIC, 2013). It is therefore natural to assume that between these 1 billion prescriptions, an error or mistake will be made. Current studies suggest that of all the dispensed medicines, there are approximately 0.01-3.32% errors made in community pharmacy and 0.02-2.7% in hospital pharmacy (James et all, 2009).

In Australian hospitals medication administration errors make up 9% or 1 in10 of all medication administrations. These errors include wrong doses, wrong intravenous infusion rates and errors made by prescribing doctors. Errors on discharge of patients were increasingly higher with up to 2 errors per patient related to doctors transcribing discharge medications (Roughead, Semple, & Rosenfeld, 2016).

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

Inappropriate prescribing commonly occurs in adults aged 65 or older, who have a higher prevalence of chronic disease, disability, and dependency (Page II, Linnebur, Bryant, & Ruscin, 2010). Exposure to inappropriate medications is associated with increased morbidity, mortality, and health care utilization (Page II, Linnebur, Bryant, & Ruscin, 2010). Below is a list of measures that concentrate on the prescribing of correct medications in the hospital

In the Institute of Medicine (IOM) report in 2006, Preventing Medication Error, more than 1/3 of the 1.5 million adverse drug events that were recorded in the United States each year occurred in an outpatient setting. Likewise, in 2008 IOM released a report that laid emphases on the need for setting universal standards within prescribing and dispensing practices. Multiple studies reported that an increased prevalence of patient adherence to taking prescribed medications can be compromised by their inability to comprehend or understand the directions for taking the medication (Wolf et al., 2016). The inability to understand and interpret prescription drug labels were recognized as the leading cause of a large proportion of outpatient medication error and adverse events, as patients may possibly accidentally misuse a prescribed

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).

People all over the world, continue to be tendered prescription medication, which in many cases further complicate health issues with its myriad of side effects. In fact, statistics have shown that approximately 100,000 people around the world die as a result of prescription drugs annually (Smith, 2012). On the contrary, according

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

Between 1992 -1994, there were recommendations which led to changes to the legislation with the Medicine Act 1968, which meant that nurses and health visitors, could prescribe within limits in England (Lanyon 2004). The Medicine Act is an legislative statute which regulates the control, the supply and manufacturing of medication for human use. The Medicine Act 1968 regulates “the use of therapeutic agents by optometrists. The act classifies medicines as Prescription only (POM), Pharmacy (P), and General Sales List (GSL). POM can only be sold or supplied against a prescription issues by a doctor or dentist, P medication requires supervision of a pharmacist, whilst GSL medicines can be sold from any lockable premises. Optometrists can use certain

In addition, illegible prescription is one the factors, which can increase the risk if medication errors regardless of the accuracy, and completeness of the prescription. Education intervention programs and computer-aided prescription order entry can substantially contribute to lowering of these errors and impose prescription writing according to recognized and published

Our study has several limitations. The comparison of our data with other studies was challenging due to the lack of studies investigating intra-operative medication errors in the pediatric population, in addition to differences in the healthcare systems, definitions of medication errors and methodology used. We studied errors in the surgery department in one teaching Children’s hospital in Egypt, so our results may not be applicable to non-academic hospitals where patients are expected to receive more care, but may be generalized to other departments in the hospital as errors are usually committed by residents who rotate among several departments in the hospital. Even with an integrative methodology to data collection, we probably failed 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