Preventing Medication Errors in Healthcare

This assignment delves into the crucial topic of preventing medication errors within healthcare environments. It examines various factors contributing to these errors, analyzes effective strategies to mitigate their occurrence, and highlights the roles of different healthcare professionals in ensuring patient safety. The analysis includes a review of relevant research articles and guidelines on best practices for medication administration.

Running head: MEDICATION ERRORS 1
Medication Errors
Student’s Name
University Affiliation

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What is the Best Way to Prevent Medication Errors in Hospitals?
Introduction
Safety during patient’s admission in the hospitals comprises one of their fundamental
rights as well as a priority of medical professionals (Merry & Anderson, 2011). Errors made
during healthcare delivery have drawn researcher’s attention over the last decade. The errors
that appear in a hospital set up involves lots of incidents such as the use of wrong
equipment’s by the health professionals, patient falls, hospital infections, medication errors,
and much more (Acquisto, Bodkin, & Johnstone, 2007). Statistics show that medication
errors in America account 6500 deaths annually, an estimate of 0.002% of the total
population, where 0.1% of the latter results in death. A study that examined the types of
medication errors categorized them into omission errors, wrong route/time errors, and over
prescription or under prescription errors to mention just a few. Therefore, to prevent any form
of failure committed in the hospitals, the adoption of preventive measures in undoubtedly
significant as stated by Maaskant et al., (2015).
A breakdown of literature from the bibliographies presented in this report show that
preventive measures for medication are related with a wide range of factors such as the
dosing calculation technique, medical preparation plus administration, oral medication errors,
nursing education, the interdisciplinary education, e.tc.
Dosing Calculation Techniques and Nursing Education
These measures make health professionals like the nursing students ready for the
clinical duties during their fieldwork. Calculation skills like mathematical computations may
complicate the application of mathematics operations, especially when prescribing
medications to a patient (Lopez et al., 2012). The article Interventions for Reducing

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Medication Errors in Hospitalized Adults analyses all types of medication operations and
according to the authors, it would be a bold move to consider the establishment of protocols
in the medical field. Therefore, it would be much easier for the health professionals to meet
the correct dosing calculations and avoid medical errors Lopez et al., (2012). A separate
study on accessing unsafe actions for the clients, found that over 52% of unsafe actions
connected to medical mistakes where 23% of those were connected with nursing skills.
Moreover, taking education classes that boost medication calculation techniques via
scientific trials appears very helpful. According to Martin and Bryan (2013), the provision of
books with examples as well as recommendations appear to be beneficial in enhancing
learner’s skills of learning. Else way, strengthening theoretical pharmacological background
for the practicing health professionals can help them know medical errors, as they become
future health professionals.
Medication Preparation/Administration
The key tenet of medical safety is to lower medical error rates, reduce their earlier
identification prior to people get harm as well as timely treatment (Khalil et al, 2017). Some
of the preventive strategies of this type of error are the standardization, as well as the
simplification of medical procedures. These procedures involve the following measures;
firstly, is to ensure a safe environment by putting labels to deter visitors from interrupting a
doctor at that particular time. The labels can also be used as a reminder to enable the
healthcare professionals to concentrate when delivering a healthcare service to their patients.
Secondly is the delivery of premixed medics from the pharmacy to the hospital wards without
the need for special preparations or further dialysis by the medical staff. As stated by Khalil
et al., (2017) a mandatory double check of medication by two different health professionals
can also be helpful in reducing risks that may lead to the severity of the patient’s health.

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Lastly, the preparation or administration of drugs the same time alongside the check of
whether the medication is administered to the right patient can be other safety measures that
can be practiced in healthcare units to help reduce medication errors.
Oral Medication Orders/Interdisciplinary Collaboration/ Computerized Monitoring
The medication orders transmitted via phone from one health professional to another
are hiding risks. According to the American Pharmacists Association (2015), the existence of
noises or voices at the background of the speaker, poor phone connection, unfamiliarity with
patient’s situation at hand, as well as quick way of communication or conversing over the
phone are some of the factors that may make communication difficult. Therefore, to evade
medication faults in such instances, it is prudent to understand the order, then confirm the
client's name, the exact dosing, the reason for administering the dosage and the mediation
involved. All these actions, are done before a physicist hangs up the phone. What is important
here is the collaboration between the nurses, doctors, and the pharmacologist, when seeking
ways and policies through which the incidence of medication errors can be reduced. Coxon
and Rees, (2015) holds that the interdisciplinary cooperation should also obtain a
comprehensive view regarding the problems of medication errors, their main causes, and how
medical health professionals tackle them.
On the other hand, computerized monitoring is a modern way of voluntary
pharmacists reporting. They detect an error like order error, rectify it, and then fill out the
report. This implies that medication mistakes can be intercepted prior to the occurrence of
any adverse event. In an event where Computerised physician order entry is in use,
prescription plus dispensing errors can be easily detected (Goel, 2009). The systems improve
safety needs to be used in combination with clinical decision support systems. However,

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adoption of technology can be costly, but it can also lead to a rise in new and unknown risks
in the medical field.
Special Populations
Special populations such as the elderly and children have been the leading causes of
medical errors. For the children, they have been shown to be vulnerable to medications
errors. Goldspiel et al., (2015) states that these errors have been shown to be rampant in
paediatric hospital setups with the rate for severe drug events being three times higher for
children than adults. Ideally, dosses of children medication are determined by weight, hence
any extra calculation involved may leave a room for error. Moreover, few drugs have been
tested for paediatric use; therefore, doctors should estimate dosage to treat children. In some
instances, it may be difficult to have the children cooperate fully, with different aspects of
care and also, poor familiarity among the healthcare professionals with standards of care for
unusual paediatric illness can also lead to a medical error (Merry & Anderson, 2011).
Another group of people that appear to be vulnerable to medical errors includes the elderly.
This has been influenced by the heightened complexity of their care compared to systemic
discrimination against the provision of quality care to the same group.
Reporting Responsibilities
Currently, different databases exist that collect data on certain types of errors, like the
centre for disease control and prevention (Johnson, Guirguis, & Grace, 2015). Individual
healthcare systems or institutions might have their internal data collection system like that at
the veteran’s health administration. However, many countries have put in place systems for
facilities within their regions, but such systems have been affected by underreporting of
severe events. This problem is pervasive for systems designed to hold individuals or

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organizations responsible for errors or adverse outcomes. For medical error reduction to be
effective in every system, it is prudent for errors to be reported as well as evaluated (Lopez et
al., 2012). Where effective programs should put protection from legal discovery as well as a
liability that cause errors to be hidden.
The primary aspect of a good reporting system are where those that report should feel
secure when doing so as well as their confidentiality be protected. Unfortunately, systems
where such tenets are missing is ineffective in procurement of information that is imperfect
and inaccurate as well. According to Lopez et al., (2012) the question of who made this error
is not essential, but it important to find out what happened and how the same mistake can be
prevented in future.
The IOM suggests a two-tier reporting system; a voluntary reporting system for
medical errors including close calls and nationwide reporting system that entails mandatory
reporting of faults that result in serious in death or severe injuries. Great support exists for the
state and federal legislation that protects both the provider as well as the patient
confidentiality, whilst safeguarding the remedies, for those who health has been
compromised (Kasbekar et al., 2014).
Conclusion
The present report highlights some of the best ways of prevention or reduction of
medication error rates. Physicist’s watchfulness, as well as the adoption of precaution
measures regarding medical errors, are detrimental to preventing medication faults. Research
has shown that shifts in health system characteristics regarding medication management
comprise another tenet to protect a client from medical mistakes. It is evident that the
exclusion of medical faults is hard to be successful, however the drop of their occurrence is

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something that can be achieved. Ultimately, it is evident that the minimization of every type
of medical error during the delivery of healthcare promotes a safe environment for
hospitalization.

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http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/s1042-0991(15)32189-7
Coxon, J., & Rees, J. (2015). Avoiding medical errors in general practice. Trends In Urology
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Goel, A. (2009). Disclosure of medical errors. Indian Journal Of Medical Ethics, (2).
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Goldspiel, B., Hoffman, J., Griffith, N., Goodin, S., DeChristoforo, R., & Montello, C. et al.
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and organisational interventions in primary care for reducing medication

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