Medication Errors in the Emergency Department
Background
Identification of the Problem
The promotion of patient safety is a priority for all health organizations globally. The World Health Organization recognizes this and urges all health organizations to embrace interventions that would promote patient safety in their settings. According to the WHO, patient safety refers to the lack of any preventable harm to patients alongside the reduction or prevention of unnecessary harm due to healthcare to the acceptable minimum (Mieiro et al., 2019). The realization of the desired patient safety goals is however hampered by the high incidences of medication errors in the emergency departments. The occurrence rate of medication errors in the emergency departments is at an alarming rate. It is estimated that the risk of a medication error occurring in such settings ranges between 4 and 14% (Di Simone et al., 2018). Nurses have a critical role to play in the prevention and reduction of the medication errors in the emergency setting. They have the responsibility of adopting interventions aimed at minimizing the issue due to their role in the administration of medications to patients. Therefore, this research paper provides a solution that can be adopted to address the issue of medication errors in the emergency department.
Importance and Relevance to Nursing
The issue of medication errors in the emergency department is relevant to nursing in a number of ways. As identified earlier, nurses are the main group of healthcare providers that is tasked with the responsibility of administration of medications. It therefore implies that nurses commit most of the medication errors that are reported in healthcare institutions. Promotion of patient safety through the prevention and minimization of medication errors is therefore important in their practice. Consequently, nurses need to investigate evidence-based interventions that can be used to address the issue of medication errors in their settings. Nurses and other healthcare providers also have the responsibility of creating an organizational culture where patient safety is prioritized. The creation of such culture depends largely on the level of awareness among the healthcare providers on the negative effects of errors and interventions to address them (Elden & Ismail, 2016). Therefore, the issue of medication errors becomes relevant for nursing since nurses have to play an active role in the collaborative identification of interventions to promote safety culture in their organizations.
Impact on Patient/Community
Medication errors have significant adverse outcomes on patients. The Institute of Medicine estimates that 44000 to 98000 patients lose their lives annually due to medication errors. In Italy, close to 320, 000 patients suffer from errors in institutions of healthcare (Di Simone et al., 2018). Statistics from the US reveal that at least 1.5 million people suffer injuries due to medication errors. The cost burden of medication errors in America is estimated to be USD 3.5 billion on a yearly basis (Shitu, Aung & Kamauzaman, 2020). The cost burden refers to the cost incurred by the patients due to unnecessary healthcare, and by the health organizations due to legal suits and over-utilization of the existing resources. The mortality rate due to medication errors is also high. Statistics reveal that medication errors contribute to approximately 7000 deaths in the US on an annual basis (Mieiro et al., 2019). Communities also suffer from medication errors. This can be seen from the loss of productivity among the affected members and use of community resources to meet the healthcare needs of the patients.
Literature Synthesis
Medication errors are one of the problems that health organizations face globally. The occurrence of medication errors is however higher in the emergency departments and critical units when compared to other departments in the hospital settings. As identified earlier, the risk of medication error occurring in the emergency department ranges between 4 and 14%. The high risk of medication error occurrence in these departments is attributed to a number of reasons. They include the high number of drugs that are administered to patients in this setting, large percentage of patients requiring emergency care, which increase the risk, and increased prevalence of chronic diseases in this department. There is also the evidence that the increased need for the staffs working in the emergency department to know about a large number of drugs predisposes them to committing medication errors (Di Simone et al., 2018)
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