Proposed Project / Plan - Essay Example

Proposed Project Introduction Growing up and broadening own outlook, every person develops chain of needs, sets specified goals and makes wishes forthe future. However, among huge variety of human intentions, plans, and desires there is one that stands beyond all creature comforts. Frequently coveted events may be altered under the influence of person’s health condition, disbalance of which is able to make all the rest dreams insignificant and worthless. In such situation person entrusts doctors with his the most valuable treasure, counting on rapid help and professionalism.

Though there are occurrences when medical treatment does not live up with expectations and brings only exacerbation, pain, suffering and even death, being an issue of medication errors. Statistical information Lately the aspects of mistakes that occur in medical cure have started to be analyzed and divulged in mass media more often. Hence, for example, death of famous American actor Heath Ledger, who became a victim of wrong prescription of medicaments, caused the biggest interest and shock of publicity and compelled everyone to ponder over the quality of medicine.

Despite modern rates of science’s development, due to the IOM report about 98,000 preventable deaths take place annually in America because of the medication errors (HealthGrades Quality Study, 2004). According to Williams (2007), “In a four-week UK perspective study of 36,200 prescriptions, 15% were found to have prescribing error, 25% of which were potentially serious” (p. 344). Causes of medication errors It is known that there are several reasons and manifestations of medical errors.

They are the following: prescription of the wrong medicine on the score of similarly written names; wrong calculation of dosage form; prescription of the several drugs that can not be taken simultaneously; giving drugs to the wrong patient on the score of confusing his examination form; misunderstanding of medical abbreviations; illegible handwriting; incorrect use of decimal points in prescription; using of medicaments that cause allergic reaction; inaccurate taking of examination form; negligence during surgery, for instance, when the wrong limb is amputated or surgical instruments are left inside patient’s body; incorrect diagnosis; inaccurate reading and indicators of medical equipment; remissness and insufficient qualifications of medical employees.

Healthcare organizations Nowadays there is number of programs and organizations all over the world that are aimed at divulging of medication errors and finding ways to eliminate them. Hence, the Food and Drug Administration is notorious agency of the Health and Human Services in the United States. One of its main obligations is to regulate production and approval of drugs and provide consumers with full information about drug safety, availability and prescriptions. Non-governmental public health organization, such as The United States Pharmacopeia, is a leader in medication error reporting that in 2008 has launched the Drug Error Finder database.

Also The Institute for Safe Medication Practices is another well-known nonprofit agency that was founded to understand causes of medical errors and give recommendations to prevent them. Consumers Union’s Safe Patient Project is campaign that is pointed at public disclosure of health-care outcomes. In addition, there is a great job of The National Patient Safety Agency in United Kingdom and the IOM reports, which conclude that the numerous number of medical errors happen due to the complexity of the medication–use cycle (Williams, 2007, p. 343). Solutions Therefore, it is relevant to say that the problem of medical mistakes has scaled up dramatically, being the center point of different programs and requiring careful examination and more effective solutions.

In this respect, the propositions concerning the prevention of medication errors are the following: implementing electronic methods of writing prescriptions to avoid misunderstandings, confusions of names and language barriers; indicating the purpose of medication on prescription; avoiding shortened versions of drug names; correctly and carefully calculating dosage, using metric system; separating drugs with similar names in the drug stores; giving medication to the patient at the right time with preliminary checking of his identity; providing hospitals with pharmacy service that is available 24/7; increasing professionalism of medical staff with a help of periodical trainings; ensuring double-check systems of prescriptions in the hospital; implementing day-and-night hotline that can give consultations concerning indicators, dosage and other instructions about prescribed drugs; investing finances in new medical equipment to avoid mistakes in its work.

Conclusion The initial barrier that may impede implementation of the mentioned suggestions can be the unawareness and unwillingness of authorities to change anything. That is why the most essential task to influence this obstacle is wide disclosure of medical errors. This will help to create acknowledgement of the problem’s seriousness, encouraging people to secure own health with bigger urge. References Barach, P., Mohr, J. J., Hayward, R. A., & Hofer, T. P. (2001). Preventable deaths from medical errors.

The Journal of the American Medical Association, 286(22), 2813-2814. Bucknall, T. K. (2010). Medical error and decision making: Learning from the past and present in intensive care. Australian Critical Care, 23, 150—156. Cohen, M. R. (2007). Medication errors (2nd ed.). Washington, DC: American Pharmacist Association. HealthGrades Quality Study. (2004). Patient Safety in American. Retrieved from http://www.healthgrades.com/media/english/pdf/HG_Patient_Safety_Study_Final.pdf. Kalra, J. (2004).

Medical errors: overcoming the challenges. Clinical Biochemistry, 37, 1063– 1071. Kenton, T. U., & Pratt, W. (2007). Patients as actors: The patient’s role in detecting, preventing, and recovering from medical errors. International Journal of Medical Informatics, 76, 236–244. Levinson, W. (2009). Disclosing medical errors to patients: A challenge for health care professionals and institutions. Patient Education and Counseling, 76, 296–299. Williams, D. (2007). Medication errors. The Journal of the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh, 37, 343-346.