Medication Errors In Health Care

“Medication errors were once the eighth leading cause of death in the United States” (Keane, 2014). With 44,000 to 98,000 annual deaths it is apparent that medication errors are still prevalent in health care settings. In a review done by Agyemang and White, a medication error is defined as a “failure to the drug treatment process that leads to or has the potential to lead to harm to the patient” (Agyemang & White, 2010). Medication errors are common, (however), with proper education and training they can be prevented. These errors can be caused by a variety of factors including: interruptions while administering medications, misidentification of resident, poor communication between medical professionals, and general hospital chaos (Nazarko, …show more content…
If medical professionals do not know what mistakes they are making or how to fix them the mistakes will continue. Nurses need to be aware of harmful medications and adverse affects that some medications have so that patients do not suffer from easily preventable side effects. There are many medications that look alike and sound alike so being aware and knowing which medications cause confusion can reduce the chances of giving a patient the wrong medication. It is important to make sure the right patient is getting the right dose of the right medication, through the right route at the right time. If the above precautions are not followed the patient could suffer from adverse effects and possible death. Not only is it important for health care providers to be educated on the safety of administering medications; patients too need to know the proper ways to administer medications once they are home from the hospital. It is important to note that education extends far beyond the classroom. Education can be as simple as informing another nurse of a common mistake they are unknowingly …show more content…
The barcoding system is linked to a database that has the list of medications each patient is receiving. When the nurse is preparing to administer medications they scan the patients wristband. The list of the patient’s medications is brought up on the computer screen and the nurse should start scanning the medications she intends to give to the patient. If the nurse happened to pull a medication intended for another patient it would flag them to not administer the medicine. The system will also flag the nurse if they are giving the wrong medication or the wrong dose of a medication. It is a computer check system to help prevent human errors. The barcoding system improves productivity and accuracy while administering medications (Cohen 2007). Barcoding technology has “led to a 74% reduction in the administration of wrong medications, a 57% reduction in errors caused by the administration of incorrect doses, a 91% reduction in wrong patient errors, and a 92% reduction in wrong time errors” (Keane 2014). If all health care settings implemented a barcoding system the statistics of incidences and deaths would decrease

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