Medication errors: Prevention and Safety measures - Assignment Example

Running head: Medication errors: Prevention and Safety measures Abstract Medication errors can occur at various stages from the prescription of a drug by the physician up to dispensing and administering the drug to the patient. Medication errors need to be controlled in order to prevent fatal conditions like drug as a result of adverse drug reactions. Hospitals and other healthcare institutions have taken several safety and precautionary steps that would help to alleviate such errors and hence contribute to the well-being of the patient both during their stay at the hospital and after their discharge. While education plays a pivotal role in reducing the occurrence of medication errors advanced in information technology has also greatly enabled physicians, medical staff, pharmacists and the patient in reducing medication errors. Medication errors can occur at any stage from prescribing to administering the drugs to the patient. Most of the medication errors occur during the prescription stage and wrong interpretation of the drug prescribed either by pharmacologists or by the attending nurses. Errors in prescribing the right drug could occur when the concerned physician is inexperienced, inattentive, distracted or physically unfit (Aronson, 2009). Prescription errors could occur even in cases where the right drug is prescribed due to lack of legibility of the physicians writing or when intercepted incorrectly by pharmacists, nursing or other staff in the hospital. In cases where the right drug is available errors can occur during administering the drugs mainly due to negligence of the concerned staff. Several safety and precautionary measures have been identified and listed which would help prevent medication errors and thereby protect the safety of patients (Anderson & Townsend, 2010). Giving the right medication to the right patient is the most vital step in any hospital setting. There are a wide range of factors that could contribute to medication errors. Medication errors occur as early as the prescription stage where the medication written by the physician is not legible or the pharmacists misreads the medication in haste. In one such instance a pharmacist misreads a seizure medication prescribed for a boy and dispensed a steroid which lead to induced diabetes that was left undetected which finally cost the life of the boy due to diabetic ketoacidosis (Anderson & Townsend, 2010). In some cases medication errors occur as a result of increased workload of the hospital staff especially the nurses. This could lead to distractions while procuring or administering drugs to the patient and fatigue and ill-health of the caregivers can also lead to grave medication errors (Anderson & Townsend, 2010; Mahajan, 2011). In one hospital setting a “no interruption zone” has been instituted in places where nurses procure medications from automated dispensing machines. Such actions will facilitate better concentration from the staff and hence fewer error risks (Anderson & Townsend, 2010). In case of intensive care units the higher stress levels and frequent changes in patient prescription and the severity of their illness can add to the risk of errors (Mahajan, 2011). In one instance a nurse attending to a patient in a critical care unit administers an intubated patient with powdered pills via his nasogastric tube failing to notice the ‘Do not crush’ warning in the electronic medication record. This error led to the death of the patient. Hence it is vital to constantly update the nursing staff with drug information and also proper communication needs to be established between the concerned physicians and the staff nurses. Nursing staff and others dealing with medications should be constantly updated about new medicines procured by the facility as well on potential medication errors that could occur (Anderson & Townsend, 2010). Drug manufacturers also play a major role in this regard as proper manufacturing, packaging and labeling of drugs would help in preventing potential medications errors. A well-known case is the heparin overdose to several pediatric patients that occurred due to packaging errors of the heparin drug which resulted in the death of three infants. Following this the FDA and the drug manufacturers undertook measures to enhance the labeling of drugs by using larger font size and employing different colors for various drug dosages (Anderson & Townsend, 2010). Another important requirement is the right storage of medicines and accounting for the stocks at appropriate intervals. In several hospitals nurses maintain a medication stash which could lead to duplication of medications and in some cases the expiry date of the medication can also be overlooked. In the recent years steps has been taken to reduce stocking of medications by the nurses and procurement of new medications from the pharmacy is being advocated. In many cases drugs are delivered to the patient by means of certain devices such as tubes and inhalers. In such cases it is necessary to ensure that the equipment is sterile and also monitor the system constantly (Anderson & Townsend, 2010). Medication errors also occur due to lack of awareness about the possibility of errors occurring within a facility. This can be prevented by educating the staff on errors occurring in other facilities should also be created as it will help to provide a broader picture about the issue (Anderson & Townsend, 2010). It is also necessary to encourage the medical staff to report all kinds of medication related errors irrespective of whether the patient was harmed as such a record will be useful to educate the staff and also to prevent the re-occurrence of similar errors. Reducing the workload of medical staff especially those working in intensive care units would also help to minimize the risks associated with medication errors (Mahajan, 2011). Medication errors also occur due to lack of proper education especially to the nursing fraternity. Nurses and other caregivers should be educated to bear in mind the five important rights while administering medicines that include identifying the right patient and the drug and administering the same in the correct dosage at the right time and via the right route (Anderson & Townsend, 2010). It is necessary to educate medical graduates to analyze the medication history of the patient and look for any possible allergic reactions prior to prescribing a medication. The age and other vitalities should be considered while allotting dosage regimens to the patient and also they should educate the patient on the need and use of all medications prescribed to them. Educating pharmacists on the use and effects of various medications can help eliminate errors while dispensing medications (Aronson, 2009). Medication errors can also stem from manual handling of drugs and drug information of the patient. The use of information technology has also become a key factor for reducing errors that occur due to such manual handling over the past years. In addition, use of these systems reduced the financial overload as are lessen the complications in healthcare management both in the administrative as well as with the medical fraternity. Some of the major uses of information technology include computerized physician order entry that will help to reduce prescription errors, automated dispensing machines which reduce potential errors that may arise during dispensing of medications in a patient-specific manner with the help of bar-codes. Administration of medicines using the bar-codes scanned from the patient’s identification bracelet will help to detect any errors corresponding to the identity, drug and dosage, as well as the route and time of delivery of the medicine to the patient. In case a patient has already been taking medication for a particular condition prior to hospital admission use of electronic medical reconciliation of their medication lists will help in compiling a complete list of the patient’s medications. The introduction of electronic health records in many hospital settings also provide access to their medication lists and enables patients to know about drug information and also about possible allergic reactions or drug-drug interaction effects. This information could be shared immediately with their physicians and a suitable alternative can be prescribed (Agrawal, 2009). In conclusion, care has to be exercised in every stage of healthcare provided to the patient order to reduce the occurrence of errors relating to the administration and intake of medications by the patient. It is a team-work in which physicians, nursing and other medical staff and pharmacists will have to work in tandem to prevent the occurrence of medication errors. Right from the time a medication is prescribed to the patient up to its intake or administration to the patient there has to be several precautions that need to be adhered. The nursing community plays a pivotal role in this regard as they are primarily responsible for most kinds of medication errors. It is also the responsibility of the hospital or the institution to oversee the functioning capacities of nurses and offer them the right education and awareness on the possible occurrence of such errors and also teach them ways to avoid them. References 1. Anderson, P., & Townsend, T. (2010). Medication errors: Don’t let then happen to you. American Nurse Today, 5 (3): 23-28. Retrieved 14 Feb, 2013, from http://www.americannursetoday.com/assets/0/434/436/440/6276/6334/6350/6356/8b8dac76-6061-4521-8b43-d0928ef8de07.pdf 2. Aronson, J. K. (2009). Medication errors: EMERGing solutions. British Journal of Clinical Pharmacology, 67 (6): 589-591. Retrieved 14 Feb, 2013, from http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2723194/ 3. Agrawal, A. (2009). Medication errors: prevention using information technology systems. British Journal of Clinical Pharmacology, 67 (6): 681-686. Retrieved 14 Feb, 2013, from http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2723209/ 4. Mahajan, R. P. (2011). Medication errors: can we prevent them? British Journal of Anesthesia, 107 (1): 3-5. doi:10.1093/bja/aer131 Read More