Medication Errors Research Paper

Methods Utilized To Prevent Medication Errors

Liana Rodriguez

Florida International University

Methods Utilized to Prevent Medication Errors

Introduction

The goal of any medication practice and dispension is to improve the quality of life of the patients while minimizing the medication risk to the patient. Patients are always subject to errors and risk during the medication period. Medication errors include among others prescription errors, dispensing errors, medication administration errors, omission of ordered drugs, timing, and even patient compliance errors (Goldspiel et al., 2015). Health care organizations are centers for care and rescue for patients suffering from different health issues. Therefore, it is the duty of the health care managers and providers to ensure that patients do not develop further health issues and complication due to the medical errors.

Cause of Medication Errors

A number of factors have been associated with medication errors in most health care organizations. Some of these factors include workload, staffing ratios, burnout, etc. Patient related factors that could trigger medication errors include age, non-adherence to medication, inadequacy of medication information, miscommunication between nurses, pharmacists and physician (Goldspiel et al., 2015).

The abbreviations used in the hospital should be the ones approved for use in the medical ordering by such a body. Also, P & T establishes standard drug administration time guided by relevant information from nursing and pharmacy departments (Goldspiel et al., 2015). Also, hospitals have developed standard drug concentrations as well as dosage charts to reduce the need for the dosage circulation by