Medication Error

Goal three by the National Patient Safety Goal for 2014 is to use medicines safely. Many errors occur regularly with medications which is why communication is so important with the doctors, nurses and patients. One process that Joint Commission requires in accredited HCO’s is medication reconciliation “creating the most accurate list possible off all medications a patient is taking, including drug name, dosage, frequency, and route, and comparing that list against the physician’s admission, transfer, and/or discharge orders with the goal of providing correct medications to the patients at all transition points within the hospital (Finkelman & Kenner, 2012, p. 388)”. Ensuring medication reconciliation to the patient, health providers and any new consults that are

Each year, roughly 1.5 million adverse drug events (ADEs) occur in acute and long-term care settings across America (Institute of Medicine [IOM], 2006). An ADE is succinctly defined as actual or potential patient harm resulting from a medication error. To expound further, while ADEs may result from oversights related to prescribing or dispensing, 26-32% of all erroneous drug interventions occur during the nursing administration and monitoring phases (Anderson & Townsend, 2010). These mollifiable mishaps not only create a formidable financial burden for health care systems, they also carry the potential of imposing irreversible physiological impairment to patients and their families. In an effort to ameliorate cost inflation, undue detriment, and the potential for litigation, a multifactorial approach must be taken to improve patient outcomes. Key components in allaying drug-related errors from a nursing perspective include: implementing safety and quality measures, understanding the roles and responsibilities of the nurse, embracing technological safeguards, incorporating interdisciplinary collaborative efforts, and continued emphasis upon quality control.

According to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA 2009), the wrong route of administrating medication accounts for 1.3 million injuries each year. An article published in September issue of the Journal of Patient Safety estimates there are between 210,000 and 400,000 deaths per year associated with medical errors. This makes medical errors the third leading cause of deaths in the United States, behind that comes heart disease and cancer. To prevent medical errors always follow the Three Checks and most importantly the Rights of Medication Administration. The “Rights of Medication Administration” helps to ensure accuracy when administering medication to a patient. When administering medication the administer should ensure they have the Right Medication, Right Patient, Right Dosage, Right Route, Right Time, Right Route, Right Reason, and Right Documentation. Also remember the patient has the right to refuse, assess patient for pain, and always assess the patient for signs of effects.

Before administration of any medication the patients chart should be looked at and varify that the patient has no allergies that could be related to said treatment or anything similar in their medical history. Also obtaining a baseline set of vitals prior to medication administration

rights, health, and safety of the patient.” This provision, identifying patients, medication safety are related because it is a nurse’s responsibility to protect the patient from harm and promote safety. Nurses are taught to use multiple checks before administering a drug and use two identifiers. These checks include checking the medication against the order when obtaining it, checking again when preparing the medication and the last check is done at the patient’s bedside prior to giving the medication. Also it is imperative to question any medication order that does not seem fit. The order should include a date, time, name of the medication, dosage strength, the route for

* All medication should be recorded and signed for by the receiving pharmacist and a proper record maintained in-house.

1. There are a number of types of materials and equipment needed for the administration of medication via the different routes. They all serve a type and purpose these include:

There are several legislations in place with protocols for the administration of medication which I have listed below. The main policy re admin of drugs and storing of drugs and medicines is the Control Of Substances Hazardous to Health or COSHH but along with this there are other policies in place as per the list below.

Also to give medication respecting the person’s dignity and choice, to only give authorised medication from a labelled container, to give the medication according to the training received. Also to help to inform and educate the person about their medicine should they wish to know, to be aware of common side effects. It’s also important to record episodes of care accurately, also to report any problems to the manager.

Improve the accuracy of patient identification. The recommendation is for all healthcare providers to institute a policy of using at least two patient identifiers when providing care, treatment, and services. This goal has two objectives, one to verify the individual as the person for whom the service or treatment for and to match the service or treatment to that individual.

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 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

-Administer only medications prescribed by the doctor and keep a record of them after each dose.

preventing errors from reaching patients.” (Koczmara, C., Dueck, C., & Jelincic, V., 2006). It is because of this that every effort should be made with regard to implementing effective strategies to reduce the risk of medication errors. The five rights, right route, right

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