Understanding the Nature and Danger of Medication Errors Medications are one of the backbones of disease management. However, reported cases of medication errors have been growing in alarming numbers. A study in the Philippines has shown a 97.8% prevalence rate of medication errors. A research conducted in the United Kingdom has shown that 38% of patients who are 75 years and older have been affected by prescribing and monitoring errors, while a Swedish study concludes a 42% medication error rate. Patient care and treatment is a complex process that involves several members of the healthcare team who work together with the patient towards a common goal. Because of this, medication errors can happen in any of these steps in the treatment …show more content…
To ensure the best care, your doctors need to know the history of the medicines you have taken and the ones you are currently taking in order to prevent drug interactions. Jotting down your medicines in a journal or a medication log can save you the stress of trying to recall the name of these medicines. Remembering the dosage, intervals, and duration of multiple drugs can be really hard, especially for busy people. Inquire. If there is something you don’t understand regarding your medication regimen and the doctor’s prescription (like in the case of illegible handwriting), never hesitate to ask. Remember that drugs are toxic to your kidneys and liver, regardless of their beneficial effects and taking the wrong drug (with wrong dosage, route, and form) is even worse. Adherence to medication is not to be taken lightly. Improper and wrong medication intake can lead to dangerous drug interactions and adverse effects that may harm your liver and kidneys. As a patient, you need to have an adequate understanding of the importance of proper medication intake. Your role in patient care is under the compliance stage of the treatment process so proper monitoring of your drug intake is a responsibility you shouldn’t take for
Healthcare professionals must talk to their patients about possible side-effects of drugs they are taking and make sure they understand what can happen. In doing so, patients may start to understand why something is happening to them and it is a normal side-effect, which can not only lead to trust from the patients to providers, but can lead to the passing of knowledge from one to another which may prevent future
By creating this comprehensive list of the medication plan given to the patient, the hospital pharmacist can then send this information to the community pharmacist and make sure that the information is held up to date. This would allow for a smoother transition for the patient and it would allow the patient to be more informed of their medications. The pharmacist is “poised to play an important role in improving medication management during transitions of care and reducing readmission rates” so the pharmacist should play a more active role to help ensure the best therapy for the patient (7). The pharmacist should ultimately design an ideal system for Medication Reconciliation to help reduce medication errors and better inform patients on ADEs to prevent any unnecessary medical
Barriers to the reporting of medication administration errors and near misses: an interview
Medication adherence refers to whether a patient is taking their prescribed medication as directed. Many chronic illnesses can be fought of and beaten with the use of pharmacotherapy. However, many patients cease to take their prescription, which could happen for a number of reasons, ranging from the patient, to the physician (Brown, Bussell, 2011). This is a very big problem, as developing, manufacturing, and distributing drugs costs a lot of money, and even human lives, that will go to waste and be destroyed if people do not take their medications.
In the modern society, the use of medication has become an issue of major concern for many individual and groups in world because the medication-taking behavior is extremely complex because it involves patient, physician, and process components. Therefore, for individual to improve compliance, requiring numerous multifactorial strategies (Brown and Bussell, 2011).
Medication reconciliation is a safe process that can benefit patients by providing accurate, up to date listing of current medications the patient is taking. Patients deserve high quality patient care that supports accurate medication list, eradicating potential medication errors, and providing superior safe patient care. Which then directs me to my clinical question, does accurate medication reconciliation (intervention) influence patient safety (outcome) in patent’s who have adverse drug events (problem) over a one year within ambulatory clinic settings (time)? My PICOT supportive research question has been further evaluated from the journal article, “Ambulatory Medication Reconciliation: Using a Collaborative Approach to Process Improvement at an Academic Medical Center” written by Keogh et al. (2016).
Provision of any information related to the medication or drug use which is unbiased, evidence-based and critically evaluated information that is always up-to-date as part of the pharmaceutical care process is known as drug information services.1 This service provides the information or advice regarding the drugs and drug therapy either in written form or verbally. The information is usually provided according to the request that has been made by the healthcare providers, committees, organization, patient and even the public.2 In general, drug information should be retrieved, evaluated and communicated effectively in the clinical practice. This helps in making the care decisions, providing the evidence-based recommendations and improving the patient outcomes.3 All pharmacists should provide the drug information services as this is their primary professional responsibilities.1,4 Drug information services has become the routine component of daily practice for most of the pharmacists.
To create an environment where these errors are a rare occurrence, all healthcare professionals must dedicate themselves to implementing QSEN's six core competencies each and every day. These professionals must also speak up when they see room for improvement in their workplace. Regardless of the healthcare setting or demographic of patients, safe outcomes are the purpose of providing patient-centered care. Since nurses are the largest subgroup of healthcare professionals, their ability to make strides towards improved medication administration is undeniable. As the nursing code of ethics states, nurses have the duty to protect the health and safety of those in their care (Winland-Brown, Lachman, O'Connor Swanson, 2015).
Taking a medication or medications everyday of one’s life is not always an easy task. According to Benjamin (2012), “Seventy-five percent of Americans have trouble taking their medicine as directed” (p.2). Lack of adherence can cause a person their health as well as the health care system billions of dollars. An approximation of 125,000 deaths a year in the United States (U.S.) is due to medication non adherence (p.2). Benjamin (2012) stated, “nearly half of all the Americans-133million-people suffer from at least one ongoing or chronic health condition” (p.2)
Patients Drug Routine If they have their own medication, they may have a routine for taking it, for example before or after their meals, at certain times throughout the day. Usual drug rounds in a hospital can’t
Medication use is potentially dangerous. Polypharmacy is increasing, and makes it harder to keep track of side effects and interactions and of potentially inappropriate drug combinations. “The risk of serious consequences, hospitalization, and death due to medication errors increases with patients’ age and number of medications (Scand J Prim Health Care, 2012)”. For example, the GP is supposed to monitor the patient's regular medication, but does not always do so. Lack of monitoring and keeping track of patients’ medication use is a main cause when a patient is given inappropriate drugs.
Most people are not educated about the how and why their drugs work, so it could be easy for them to not take it for reasons such as they don’t directly feel the benefits of their medications, they are having adverse reactions but are not mentioning them to anybody, or they can’t remember to take all of their medications at the right times. I think one of the biggest factor could be remembering to take the medication at the right time, but also in my case my medications were not treating real problems so it was easy for me to forget. A patient may feel the same way, because their disease state may have not progressed to a state where the symptoms are not severe enough to make a change in the patients thinking. During consultation with a patient it is important to ask the right open-ended questions when doing a medication review. Instead of asking, “are you taking all of your medication at the proper times?”
Tolicia, I agree that getting patients involved in all aspects of their care would greatly reduce the number of medication errors. If a patient knows what their medication looks like, what time they take it, what route it is administered, and what it is for, then this will protect them from receiving the wrong medication. Encouraging patients to get involved in their care would also present more opportunities for patient education and it would allow the patient to ask any questions they may have about their condition, and to mention any side effects or new problems they are experiencing. Urging patients to speak up about their medication administration could also allow the doctors and nurses extra opportunitites to evaluate if the medication
Have you ever found asking yourself or someone this simple question, does this medication actually help me or you? You may find yourself taking too many medications or having more problems than before. Well, in America most doctors misread, falsely prescribe, or prescribe too many medications all at once. Doctors over prescribe, misread, and falsely prescribe medication among America. This results in redundant medications, unnecessary expenses for the patient, and medical issues.
Majority of the factors affecting long-term compliance may be due to the number of the medications taken, number of daily doses, occurrence and well as severity of the side effects and compatibility with the daily activities of the patient (2). There are several reasons that act as barrier for medical non-adherence to occur among older patients. These include poor eyesight or vision, memory, hearing of the elderly, having difficulty to follow the instructions given, handling small tablets, opening drug containers, lacking of education about the medication, inability to define the adverse drug reactions, as well as competence of prescribed medicines