Errors Involved in Medication Procedures

This paper explores the medical errors being faced by healthcare organizations. Errors in medication involves the failure that occurs within the process of treatment which has the possibility of causing the patient harm. The paper discusses the classification of medication errors, including prescribing errors, dispensing errors, and administration errors. It also provides ways in which medication errors can be prevented. The subject of the paper is healthcare, and it does not mention any specific course code, course name, or college/university. The document type is an essay, and the assignment type is not mentioned.

Running head: ERRORS INVOLVED IN MEDICATION PROCEDURES 1
Errors Involved in Medication Procedures
Student’s Name
Institutional Affiliation

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Introduction
Today, there are several issues the healthcare sector is facing. The diverse and complex
nature of the healthcare sector has made these problems to evolve. This paper explores the
medical errors being faced by healthcare organizations. Errors in medication involves the failure
that occurs within the process of treatment which has the possibility of causing the patient harm.
Medication errors often occur when choosing the type of dosage regimen suitable for a patient.
As much as there are instances when medication errors can be serious, they are occasionally
treated as trivial. Nevertheless, it is vital for them to be detected because system failures which
lead to minor errors are most likely to result in serious errors later.
Classification of Medication Errors
Various steps that are involved in the medical chain right from the moment prescription is
made to when the drug gets to the patient, there is plenty of errors that occur in the process.
Nonetheless, crucial enhancements can be made to prevent medical errors. There is a proposed
classification structure that is founded on a psychological approach that enables people to
identify and categorize various errors then come up with intervention necessary for their
prevention (Schmidt, Taylor & Pearson, 2017). Medication errors are often classified based on
where they take place in the cycle of medical use. For instance, they can occur during the
prescription, administration, or dispensing of the drug.
Prescribing Errors
Prescribing errors can be described as incorrect selection of drugs for the patient. These
kinds of errors comprise of dosage, quantity, prescription of a disputed drug or indication.
Lacking knowledge concerning the prescribed drug, the recommended dosage and the

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knowledge about patients often lead to instances of prescribing errors (Schmidt, Taylor &
Pearson, 2017). Similarly, other factors that lead to prescribing errors include giving out verbal
orders, confusing the name of the drug, using an abbreviation, unreadable handwriting, and
inaccurate medical history.
Despite the presence of prescribing errors, there are ways in which these kinds of errors
can be prevented in the field of medicine. One of the ways is by using an electronic method of
prescribing. Electronic prescribing is vital since it can help in the reduction of prescribing errors
which occur as a result of unreadable handwriting (Cohen, 2016). Automated physician order
entry systems eradicate the demand for transcription of various medical orders by nurses as well
as the need for pharmacy staff to interpret the order (Rodziewicz & Hipskind, 2019). This system
has been identified for having vital effects in the reduction of medical errors.
Dispensing Errors
Dispensing errors are bound to emerge from any stage on the course of the dispensing
process. It can be either from when the prescription is received in the pharmacy or when then the
dispensed medicine is being supplied to the patient. Dispensing errors often take place between
the rate of 1-24% which includes a selection of the product or strength (Tariq & Scherbak, 2019).
This mostly occurs on drugs having the same appearances or names. For instance, Losec and
Lasix are some of the proprietary names that tend to appear similar when handwritten (Cohen,
2016). The Food and Drug Administration in the US has called for Losec to change its
proprietary name due to the growing fatalities caused by the confusion. Another drug pair that
often cause confusion is amlodipine 5 and amiloride 5 tablets (Cohen, 2016). Some possible
dispensing errors consist of the wrong drug, wrong dose, and wrong patient. Using electronic

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labeling has resulted in transposition as well as typing errors which make up the common
dispensing errors in the field of medicine.
Even though dispensing errors are common in the health sector, there are some ways in
which they can be reduced. Some of these ways include making sure that safe dispensing
procedures are being practiced, separating the drugs having similar appearance and names, being
aware of the drugs having high risks like cytotoxic agents and potassium chloride, eliminating all
the interruptions that are bound to occur during the dispensing procedure and presenting safe
procedures on how medicine is dispensed in the pharmacy (Cohen, 2016).
Administration Errors
Administration errors take place when there is a discrepancy between the drug that has
been administered to the patient and the drug therapy the prescriber intended for the patient.
Drug administration errors mostly include omission errors that involve the drug not being
administered because of various reasons (Tariq & Scherbak, 2019). Other kinds of drug
administration errors consist of the incorrect technique of administration and administering
expired medicine or an incorrect one. Some of the factors that contribute to the errors around
drug administration include failing to check the identity of the patient before administering the
drug (Institute for Healthcare Improvement, 2017). Similarly, environmental factors like noise,
disruptions when administering drugs as well as poor lighting can also lead to drug
administration errors.
There are varieties of approaches that can be used to decrease instances of drug
administration errors from taking place. These approaches include carefully checking the identity
of the patient, making sure that the calculations of dosage are independently checked by another

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healthcare personnel before administering the drug, ensuring the drug is administered at the right
time, making sure that disruptions are minimized when going for drug rounds, and ensuring that
both the patient, the prescription and the drug are at the same place to check them against each
other (Institute for Healthcare Improvement, 2017).
In conclusion, there are a lot of causes of medication errors as well as various ways in
which they can be avoided. It is the responsibility of all healthcare professionals to identify the
factors that contribute to medical errors and use the information they obtain to prevent them from
taking place. It is significant for a multidisciplinary approach to be taken in order to minimize
the problems associated with medical errors. However, it is critical to start by developing the
awareness that it is possible to make errors and come up with steps to minimize them. From this
study, it is clear that if everything is closely monitored, a lot of medication errors that occur in
hospitals can be easily prevented.

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Annotated Bibliography
Schmidt, K., Taylor, A., & Pearson, A. (2017). Reduction of medication errors: a unique
approach. Journal of nursing care quality, 32(2), 150-156.
This article profoundly explores medication errors and their effect on patients. The article
uses a unique approach referred to as socio-technical probabilistic risk assessment in the analysis
of historical errors. The article is aimed at identifying a small number of ways that can be used in
not only establishing an increased level of reliability but also ensuring that the errors are
medication errors are significantly decreased. The article identifies some of the steps that need to
be applied within the healthcare setup in order to reduce cases of medication errors. The steps
identified have been fully proved and its preliminary analysis shows that when the steps were
applied, there was a 22% level of reduction on medication errors.
Cohen, M. (2016). Medication errors (miscellaneous). Nursing. 46(2):72, February 2016.
DOI: 10.1097/01.NURSE.0000476239.09094.06
This author reviews some of the common medication errors within the healthcare sector.
He gives an in-depth analysis of all the medication errors and various ways that can be used in
preventing them. The author uses various instances from hospitals to show the nature of risks
associated with medication errors. This gives the reader a deep perspective of the extent of the
topic. Similarly, the author gives recommendations that all healthcare professionals need to
follow to prevent medication errors from occurring as well as the hospitals from facing the
consequences that often come as a result of fatalities caused by medication errors.

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Institute for Healthcare Improvement. (2017). Improve Core Processes for Administering
Medications. Retrieved from:
http://www.ihi.org/resources/Pages/Changes/ImproveCoreProcessesforAdministeringMe
dications.aspx
This website offers a deep review of the ways that should be adopted by all healthcare
professionals in order to correctly administer drugs to patients hence reducing medication errors
from taking place. Various medication errors have been extensively discussed in the article as
well as how they can be prevented in a medical setup. The article defines the roles of all
healthcare professionals and the duty they all play in ensuring medication errors are significantly
reduced within healthcare setup. The article has been widely researched and well written which
offers the reader a wide pool of information regarding medical errors to choose from.
Tariq, R. A., & Scherbak, Y. (2019). Medication Errors. In StatPearls [Internet]. StatPearls
Publishing.
The authors of this article explore the medication errors by stating the number of fatalities
in the US as well as the patients that have to undergo complication related to medication error.
The article also explores the patients that often experience medication errors but end up not
reporting their adverse reactions. The article states the magnitude of medication errors within the
health care sector by stating the cost that is often spent every year in taking care of the patients
suffering from medication errors. Apart from the cost spend, the article also spells the physical
and psychological pain patients go through because of medication errors. This is what makes this
article as a suitable source of information related to medication errors.

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Rodziewicz, T. L., & Hipskind, J. E. (2019). Medical error prevention. In StatPearls
[Internet]. StatPearls Publishing.
This article explores medical errors as one of the serious problem facing health sector. It
depicts medical error as serious problem because it is often difficult to detect in hospital and
even if it is detected, it is still difficult to offer a viable solution that prevents it from occurring in
the future. The authors of this article hold that the only way in which patient safety can be
determined is by learning from the past medication errors. The significance of this article
towards medication error is that it advocates for the health care professionals to uphold a culture
that is aimed at recognizing various safety challenges and enacting sustainable solutions as
opposed to entertaining a culture of shame, punishment and blame.

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References
Cohen, M. (2016). Medication errors (miscellaneous). Nursing. 46(2):72, February 2016. DOI:
10.1097/01.NURSE.0000476239.09094.06
Institute for Healthcare Improvement. (2017). Improve Core Processes for Administering
Medications. Retrieved from:
http://www.ihi.org/resources/Pages/Changes/ImproveCoreProcessesforAdministeringMe
dications.aspx
Rodziewicz, T. L., & Hipskind, J. E. (2019). Medical error prevention. In StatPearls [Internet].
StatPearls Publishing.
Schmidt, K., Taylor, A., & Pearson, A. (2017). Reduction of medication errors: a unique
approach. Journal of nursing care quality, 32(2), 150-156.
Tariq, R. A., & Scherbak, Y. (2019). Medication Errors. In StatPearls [Internet]. StatPearls
Publishing.

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