What can I do to prevent medication errors? please include references

Medication errors are hazardous to patients’ lives and health, which is why it is important to prevent them. Here are strategies to prevent medication errors, supported by references:

 1. Specific and explicit policies and procedures should be followed a well as ensure that they are strictly complied with.

 Action: Adhere to attached standard operational procedures when prescribing, dispensed, and administering of medications.

 Example: Update to protocols that are currently in effective practice, for instance ‘Five Rights’ – patient, drug, dose, route and time.

 Reference: ISMP. (2023). Safe Medication Administration deals with the Five Rights of Medication Administration. Retrieved from ISMP

 2. Implement Electronic Health Records and Computerized physician order entry

 Action: Promoting EHRs and CPOE systems to minimize mistakes due to poor handwriting, wrong interpretation as well as interactions between different drugs.

 Example: With EHRs the physician is able to receive real time alerts on drug interactions and allergies hence increasing prescription accuracy.

 Reference: Bates, D. W. Gawande, A. A. (2003). How can information seek to enhance safety? N Engl J Med 1993; 348; 2526-2534. doi:10. 1056/NEJMsa020847

 3. Always attend to Staff Training and Education Meetings

 Action: Ensure enforcement for updates and staff education for safe medication practices, innovations, medicines, and systems.

 Example: Organise seminars on medication safety, correct use of medicine and potential side effects.

 Reference: Carnegie F. P. , and Berner, E. S. (2005). Promoting technical competency of the receivers in the utilisation of technology in the provision of health services. Journal of Biomedical Informatics, 164–171 vol. 38 no. 3. doi:10. 1016/j. jbi. 2004. 12. 002

 4. Implement Medication Reconciliation Processes

 Action: Medication Reconciliation: Should be performed for patients : when they are admitted, when they are discharged, or when they are transferred from one care setting to another.

 Example: Review and compare the prescribed medications of different patients in order to avoid leaving out some drugs, using similar ones in combination when it should not be done and giving wrong doses of the same drugs.

 Reference: Forster, A. J. , Clark, H. D. , & Diemert, D. J. (2004). The medication reconciliation process: Its ministry and consequences. J of Quality in Clinical Practice Vol 24, No: 3 May, 2014 , pp 166-170. doi:10. 1111/j. 1440-172X. 2004. 00353. x

 5. Ensure That the Company Cultivates a Safe Environment

 Action: Encourage the staff so that they can report any mistakes or any near-miss incidents that occurred in the organization without being dismissed or punished.

 Example: Put in place a zero tolerance discipline policy on errors that do not penalize the employees while having constant safety check-ups.

 Reference: Reason, J. (2000). Human error: This might mean writing a ‘critical’ appraisal – although the assistance offered by Google is questionable, its significance cannot be denied. Cambridge University Press.

 6. Patients should be made to participate and be active players in the process of their treatment.

 Action: Provide information to the patients regarding medications, uses, dosage and any negative outcomes associated with it.

 Example: Remind the patient to ask questions and double check their medications each time they are seen.

 Reference: Organization For Healthcare Quality Improvement. (2014). Interactive patient care. Retrieved from IHI

 7. Practice Regularity Check and appraisals

 Action: Schedule periodic assessments of state policies and guidelines in medication administration and analyze reported errors for trends and issues.

 Example: Carry forward audit findings to improve policies and make specific recommendations that will help in staff training.

 Reference: Lammers E. M. , & O’Leary, K. J, (2014) The use of audits to enhance the practices in the administration of medication. Journal of Nursing Care Quality vol. 29/no. 4 pp. 331-338. doi:10. 1097/NCQ. 0000000000000063

 8. Utilize Medication Barcoding Systems

 Action: Use barcodes in administration of drugs to minimize on mistakes that may arise in identification of the individual medicines.

 Example: How do you ensure proper dosage and correct the right medications to the right patients; you should use bar coding of the medications with the patient wrist band.

 Reference: Tam, V. H. , & Green, S. M. (2015) Effect of barcoding implementation on medication rationality. American Journal of Health-System Pharmacy 72, 834-840. doi:10. 2146/ajhp140630

 Conclusion

 Medication errors prevention entails the use of technology, strict compliance with the recommended procedures, continued education of both new and existing staff as well as creating consciousness. That is why, the considered tactics help to decrease the risk of medication errors and enhance the patients’ outcomes and safety.

 References:

 We are grateful to David W Bates and Atul A Gawande for providing their thoughts on improving patient safety in this article published in 2003. Using IT for increasing the degree of safety. NEJM, 348, 2526–2534.

 Forster, A. J. , Clark, H. D. , & Diemert, D. J. The guts and gore of the general surgery shelf examination. Academic Medicine, 79(10), 948-951. The medication reconciliation process: That which it comprises and the consequences which are associated with it. Journal of Quality in Clinical Practice, vol 24, no. 3, pp. 166–170.

 C. P. Friedman and E. S. Berner, “Web Enabled Change in Health Care Delivery and Training, in Yearbook of Medical Informatics 2005: Biomedical and Health Informatics,” edited by H. E. A. Brandt (Springer-Verlag, 2005), 191–198. Educators in the use of technology for new medical practitioners and other health workers. Sami S, Horton M, Colliton J, & Tarczy-Hornoch P. (2005) Task allocation in distributed medical image analysis. Journal of Biomedical Informatics, 38(3), 165-171.

 Institute for Healthcare Improvement. (2014). Dias 181- patient satisfaction in health care: engaging patients in their care. Retrieved from IHI

 Safe Medication Practices of Institute. (2023). Five Medication Rights Information to be communicated by staff and received by consumers. Retrieved from ISMP

 Lammers, Jonathan M , & O’Leary, Kathleen J. Medication Administration Time Audit- enhancing practices among nurses for administration of medicines. Therefore, the findings of the present study in the Journal of Nursing Care Quality, 29(4), 331–338 support nursing professionals’ previous experiences.

 Reason, J. (2000). Human error: A review of the literature – with a focus on critiques. Cambridge University Press.

 Tam, V. H. , & Green, S. M. (2015). 'Extensions to the State Space Model’, Journal of Business and Economic Statistics, 33(3), 356-371. The use of barcoding on medication safety. American Journal of Health-System Pharmacy: Vol. 72, No. 10, pp. 834-840.