Prescribing Errors With High Risk

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).

Medication error is defined as the following by the National Coordinating Council for Medication Error Reporting and Prevention: “any preventable event that may cause or lead to inappropriate medication use or patient harm while the medication is in the control of 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; dispensing; distribution; administration; education; monitoring; and use” (Anthony, Wiencek, Bauer, Daly, & Anthony, 2010). Medication errors cause increased length of patient hospitalization and morbidity and mortality (Pape

It is revealed that more mistakes are made in prescription and these mistakes associated with adverse drug reaction (ADR). To avoid prescription mistakes, in some health care settings pharmacist take that responsibility of correcting medication errors related with wrong drug, wrong dose, and prescription of allergic

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 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.

A dispensing error is a discrepancy between a prescription and the medicine that the pharmacy delivers to the patient or distributes to the ward on the basis of this prescription, including the dispensing of a medicine with inferior pharmaceutical or informational quality shows the categories of dispensing errors. If dispensing errors are considered from the perspective that the quality of all pharmacy care activities should be assured by the pharmacist, this list can be extended by

Causes of medication errors include mistakes by the pharmacist incorrectly interpreting illegible handwriting or ambiguous nomenclature, and lapses in the prescriber's knowledge of desired dosage of a drug or undesired interactions between multiple drugs.

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 National Patient Safety Agency (NPSA 2010), defines a drug error as ‘any preventable event that may cause or lead to inappropriate use of patient harm. Although not all drug errors have lead to patient harm it is important to recognise that if a mistakes has been

A dispensing error is a discrepancy between a prescription and the medicine that the pharmacy delivers to the patient or distributes to the ward on the basis of this prescription, including the dispensing of a medicine with inferior pharmaceutical or informational quality shows the categories of dispensing errors. If dispensing errors are considered from the perspective that the quality of all pharmacy care activities should be assured by the