Medication Administration: Medication Errors Essay Assignment Paper
Medication Administration: Medication Errors Essay Assignment Paper
This paper reviews medication errors from the perspective of the healthcare system. An overview of medication errors is provided, including the effect that medication errors have on the healthcare systems as a whole. Methods for reducing medication errors are provided among healthcare professionals individually and as a group.
Medication Errors: A Systems Approach to Healing
Medication errors cause thousands of deaths each year, requiring strict attention to protocols and systems review. As a result many healthcare facilities are looking at their policies, procedures and systems to determine methods for reducing medication errors among personnel and as an organizational entity.
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According to Kass (2013) adverse drug events, also known as ADEs cause more than 770,000 injuries and deaths every year. The same ADEs cost nearly $5.6 million dollars in the hospital setting contingent on the size of the healthcare facilities (Cullen, Sweitzer, Bates et al., 1997). If hospitals were to make changes to their systems to prevent and detect ADEs, then mortalities and injuries could be reduced. Thomas, Studdert, Burstin et al (2000) note medication errors and ADEs can result from multiple factors including interactions among healthcare practitioners, patients and various uses of medications. The resultant costs are very high, including fatality or permanent disability. Computerized systems can help reduce the risk of medication errors by assisting healthcare practitioners in monitoring patients, providing assistance with tracking order entry, and by integrating information related to patients, pharmacy and laboratory results and data (Kass, 2013). Further, computerized systems can aid in tracking the number of ADEs, so that methods can be developed for reducing the incidence of errors by determining the root cause of such errors.
