Medication Errors: Scope and prevention strategies

Abstract

Background: Medication errors are a significant public health concern. Although significant advances have been made, errors are still relatively common and represent an opportunity for healthcare improvement. Methodology/Principal findings:Since the publication of To Err is Human, medication errors have been under tremendous scrutiny. Organizations have moved towards a non-punitive approach to evaluating errors. This approach to medication errors has aided in identifying common pathways to medication errors and improving understanding regarding the anatomy of a medication error. As a result, prevention strategies have been developed to target common themes contributing to errors. Error prevention strategies may target common contributors of medication errors, broadly grouped as performance lapses, lack of knowledge, and lack or failure of safety systems. Strategies to thwart medication errors range from process improvement to integration of technology in the health care environment.Conclusions/Significance: Organizations should devote resources to address medication error prevention strategies in an effort to improve patient outcomes and decrease morbidity and mortality associated with medication errors.

Students’ Knowledge and Risk of Committing Medication Errors in Two Schools of Pharmacy in Nigeria

“…The most successful interventions are medication reviews conducted primarily by pharmacists with a multicomponent focus [2], even in the community practice setting [34]. This is very important in ensuring safer health services, as 1-10% of medication errors identified in patient care are associated with patient harm [4]. There are different scales in assessing causality in adverse drug reactions, such that when that is introduced in the curriculum, the students may be better positioned to identify the adverse drug reactions errors [35].…”

“…Medication error is defined as "a failure in the treatment process that leads to harm to the patient" and it can occur at different stages in the provision of drugs to a patient [1][2][3][4][5][6]. Any health professional involved with drugs and patient care is vulnerable to make an error during the production, prescribing, transcribing, dispensing, and administration phase of a drug [7].…”

Medication errors in neonatal intensive care unit of a tertiary care hospital in South India: A prospective observational study

“…Lack of sophisticated Health Information Technology (HIT) systems in our setting such as e-prescribing systems, CPOE, and bar-coded electronic Medication Administration Record has resulted in the majority of the error being at the level of drug administration,[ 19 20 21 ] and in our system, it is mostly the nursing staff who administer the drugs. It is said that nurses spend 40% of their time in medication administration.…”

Environmental Factors Contributing to Medication Errors in Intensive Care Units

“…Mahmood et al reported following environmental factors: lack of private space in the working area, the inappropriate design of the nursing unit, inadequate space in medication charting area, the small size of the medication room, using defective equipment for medical supplies, and inappropriate location of the nursing stations [26]. Also, Brunetti indicated that proper design of the work environment can prevent medication errors [27].…”