Major Medication Errors - Essay Example

?Medication errors are mistakes that occur in hospitals during administration and prescription of drugs to patients. Medication errors, depending on the specific circumstances, may have adverse consequences to a patient. Medical errors are classified based on the medication stages and the incidences will vary depending on the study method and definition. Traditionally, doctors were the only professionals involved in prescribing, but now, nurses and pharmacists are also involved in prescription other than just taking care of patients (Courtenary and Griffiths, 2010). Majority of medical errors occur during prescription stage and this can be avoided by the use of electronic prescribing. Electronic prescribing is preferred means of avoiding prescription errors in the sense that the errors that may result due to illegible handwriting, among others. It is required to have a disciplinary approach when solving medical errors by adopting an attitude of not blaming others for avoiding punishments. To avoid these, it is essential to have an open environment that is safe in order to be able to detect the report any medication errors. Medication error incidents vary between two per cent to fourteen percent of all the patients admitted in a hospital. In United States, medication error kills up to seven thousand patients annually, and this accounts for one in every twenty hospitals admissions in all the hospitals. The significant scope for these errors in hospitals is due to the presence of multiple steps that are involved in the medication chain. This process begins during drug prescription to the time when the patient receives drugs. Medical mistakes take place during the planning of a relevant action to take, and it may be based on having relevant knowledge. Other errors are based on the rules laid down, while the rest are slip and technical errors. The various medication errors are also classified based on the place it occurs. Thus, most errors in the hospital will occur when the patient is in the prescription process, dispensing, or at the time of administration. Prescription Errors Prescribing errors occurs when a patient is given an incorrect drug and it usually involves quantity of dosage, indication, and the contraindicated drug prescription. Prescription errors are usually caused by lack of knowledge of the drug prescribed, poor recommendation of drug dosage, using verbal orders during prescription, confusion of the drug names, and even using abbreviations that results in confusion. There are organizational factors, which include inadequate training, having low perception of the importance of prescribing, and lack of self-awareness of this type of error. Errors during medication prescription usually occur because of a multiple factors rather than a single factor (Koch, Gloth and Nay, 2010). Use of electronic prescribing helps in avoiding the prescription risks, and the use of computerized physician order will eliminate use of transcription of orders by nurses and interpretation orders done by pharmacists hence a reduction in prescription errors. Dispensing Errors Dispensing errors basically take place in any stage during dispensing; key actions include selecting wrong drugs for a patient. This type of error occurs primarily when drugs that have similar names, or even appearance, are used. For instance, drugs like Lasix and Losec have proprietary names and when handwritten, they will look similar; therefore, they should be prescribed generally. Moreover, wrong dosage, giving a patient wrong drug, or even using computerized labeling to a wrong patient leading to transposition are other dispensing errors. In order to avoid these errors, it is important to keep interruptions during the dispensing procedures to a minimum level while maintaining the workloads of the pharmacists at a level that is manageable. It is also important to be aware of high risks drugs such as cytotoxic agents; and the introduction of systematic procedures that can be used in dispensing medicines. Administration Errors Errors that occur because of discrepancy between specific drugs received and drug therapy intended to be given to a patient leads to administration error. Drug administration is a high risk area especially during nursing practice, and drug administration errors usually involve omission errors where specific drug will not be administered due to various reasons. Other errors that take place in during administration errors include the use of incorrect administration. Medication errors occur at high rate in adults as compared to any other age groups (Yaffe and Aranda, 2010). Administration is an intravenous routine that is complex process and errors associated with significant risks to patients usually occur and may lead to death. For instance, many patients have died due to the fact that they have been administered cytotoxic drug in an intrathecal way instead of doing it in an intravenous way. Lacking information on perceived risks, inadequate technology, and having poor role models are other key causes of administration errors. Mistakes in drug administration occur when the administration will involve uncommon procedures that the administrator lacks sufficient knowledge of the preparation procedures or complexity of the design equipment. The key factors that contribute to administration errors include failure of the administrator to check the patient’s identity before administering, and storing similar preparations in the same area. A noise interruption during drug administration is likely to increase the probability of getting involved in an administration error. To reduce the probability of this error occurring, it is essential to frequently check the dosage calculations by another independent health care professional before administering the drug. Apart from checking the identity of the patient, ensuring the prescription is correct and placing the drug and the patient in the same place in order to check them against one another prevents administration errors. Alternatives for Reducing Medication Errors Targeting high alert drugs and procedures is an alternative way or reducing medication errors. Apart from that, it is vital to implement a carefully planned series of low-cost intervention that will focus on medications having high risks, having information derived from internal event reporting. This should be designed in such a way that will improve medication safety in the hospitals. High potential error drugs such as potassium chloride, cancer chemotherapy, among others, should be identified. Restricting supply of drugs that have high potential errors is recommended such as stocking one strength morphine ampoule on wards has prevented errors such as selecting incorrect ampoule. Pharmaceutical industries should apply human error theory framework during product design and this should involve consultations with health care professionals. All health care professionals have the responsibility of identifying factors that contribute to medication errors and use the information in an appropriate way to reduce the occurrence of medication errors. Having confidence and reporting in a non-faulty manner is able to increase the frequencies at which medical errors are reported. Therefore, having a culture of safety will entail changing of the way an individual thinks and approaches medical work. It is relevant to reward people who report failures in order to create a culture of safety and be able to understand the causes of medical errors. Moreover, by using medication systems that are able to resist errors significantly reduce medication errors. References Courtenary, M. and Griffiths, M. (2010). Independent and Supplementary Prescribing: An Essential Guide. New York: Cambridge University Press. Koch, S., Gloth, Michael F. and Nay Rhonda. (2010). Medication Management in Older Adults: A Concise Guide for Clinicians. New York: Springer. Yaffe S. J. and Aranda Jacob V. (2010). Neonatal and Pediatric Pharmacology: Therapeutic Principles in Practice. Philadelphia: Wolters Kluwer Health. Read More