3 Ways to Reduce Medication Errors in a Hospital Environment

By | December 18, 2019

prevent medical error

A medication error is any preventable event that may cause or lead to inappropriate medication use or patient harm while the medication is in the control of the health care professional, patient, or consumer. Such events may be related to professional practice, health care products, procedures, and systems, including prescribing, order communication, product labeling, packaging, and nomenclature, compounding, dispensing, distribution, administration, education, monitoring, and use.

It is believed that preventable medication errors impact over 7 million patients and cost almost $21 billion annually across all care settings. About 30% of hospitalized patients have at least one discrepancy in discharge medication reconciliation. Organized Medication Carts are a leading way to reduce these medication errors.

Proper Medication Reconciliation Procedures Are Important

Institutions must have mechanisms in place for medication reconciliation when transferring a patient from one institution to the next or from one unit to the next in the same institution. Review and verify each medication for the correct patient, correct medication, correct dosage, the correct route, and correct time against the transfer orders, or medications listed on the transfer documents.

Nurses must compare this to the medication administration record. Often not all elements of a medication record are available for easy verification, but it is of paramount importance to verify with every possible source-; including the discharging or transferring institution/unit, the patient or patient’s family, and physician-; to prevent potential errors related to improper reconciliation. There are several forms of medication reconciliation available from various vendors.

Documenting Everything Is The Key To High Success

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This includes proper medication labeling, legible documentation, or proper recording of administered medication. A lack of proper documentation for any medication can cause an error. For example, a nurse forgetting to document an as-needed medication can cause another dosage being administered by another nurse since no documentation denoting previous administration exists. Reading the prescription label and expiration date of the medication is also another best practice. A correct medication can have an incorrect label or vice versa, and this can also lead to a med error.

Proper Medication Storage and Efficiency Goes A Long Way

Medications that should be refrigerated must be kept refrigerated to maintain efficacy, and similarly, medications that should be kept at room temperature should be stored accordingly. Also, the importance of maintaining a proper medical cart is important. Medical carts are ways to store supplies and medicines. Using medical carts are a way to standardize the process and organization to reduce the errors in the medication process.

Common Medical Errors That Occur

Medical errors within a hospital system occur in many forms. These include providing patients with the wrong medications, prescribing the wrong dosage, ignoring patient medical histories, providing medications that should not be taken together, improperly administering medications, failing to provide medication and improper preparation.

Health services throughout the world strive to provide care to people when they are unwell and assist them to stay well. These primary services are increasingly at the heart of people-centered health care in many countries. Accessible and safe primary care is essential to achieving universal health coverage and more. Medication errors can cause a tremendous amount of issues within a hospital system and it is integral that the organization is at utmost importance using medical carts and other supplies.

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