Prescription Blunders Essay

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).

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).

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

One of the standards that has been implemented is Standard 4: Medication Safety. The Australian Commission implemented this standard with the intention of ensuring that competent clinicians safely prescribe, dispense and administer appropriate medicines to informed patients and monitor the effect. (Australian Commission on Safety and Quality in Health Care, 2012) In healthcare, one of the most common treatments is medication. As a result of this, there are many incidences of error, many more than any other healthcare interventions. According to the Patient Safety Network (PS Network, 2015) medication errors account for nearly 700,000 emergency department visits and 100,000 hospitalizations each year. Medication errors are often a result of the unsafe and poor quality practice of healthcare professionals or system errors. Medication errors are costly and many are avoidable. For this standard

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).

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

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 Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (commonly known as Affordable Care Act and/or Obamacare) was signed into law by President Barack Obama on March 23rd, 2010. The Affordable Care Act (ACA) was enacted to increase the affordability of health insurance by controlling the

A physician could make mistakes in prescribing, the pharmacy could send the wrong medication, but who actually gave it to the patient is accountable for the consequences. For this reason, it’s our responsibility to implement change in our practice based on the evidence in order to ensure safe patient care.

While the Obamacare act has both pros and cons, people are likely to support it or disagree to it on account of the perspective that they see things from. In spite of the fact that the act involves a series of benefits, it is difficult and almost impossible for one to ignore the fact that it is likely to cause a significant shortage of healthcare professionals and that it is also probable to cause an increase in drug prices.

The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010 is also referred to as ACA or Obamacare. ACA is a federal statute that was signed by President Barack Obama on March 23, 2010. President Obama worked to make this law a success in order to ensure that Americans receive proper healthcare. The goal of the ACA is to promote quality healthcare and to amplify the accessibility to lower income Americans.

The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) was implemented in March of 2010 by President Barak Obama. The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, more commonly known as Obama care went into effect on January 1st of 2014. More than half of the United States of America was uninsured before the ACA was put into effect. The goal of the ACA is to provide those who fall in the “gap” with health insurance.

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).

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

A prospective descriptive study was performed at the medical ward, U-Thong Hospital, a 150-bed community hospital, Suphan Buri, Thailand. The patients who were admitted between September and December, 2013 were selected and interviewed to obtain the best possible medication history (BPMH) list. Then, the pharmacist reconciled the BPMH list with physician’s admission orders. All unexplained discrepancies were discussed with the physician to classify as 1) intentional, 2) undocumented intentional and 3) unintentional discrepancy. Unintentional discrepancy was defined as ME. DRPs were identified and resolved. Patient demography, rates of medication-related to harm were classified as the number of MEs, ADEs and DRPs per patient, characteristics