Enhancing Quality and Safety
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Enhancing Quality and Safety
In the health care system, errors related to medication lead to high cases of morbidity and death. There is a rise in dependence on medication treatment for many patients as the central intercession for most ailments, which exposes patients to both damage and benefits. Benefits come from proper management of the disease through its slow progression and improved outcomes, while damage occurs due to unintentional consequences or medication malpractice. Medication errors could be through incorrect medication, at the wrong timing, or dosage. Adequate nursing education regarding quality and safety when handling patients is crucial to reduce or avoid medication errors. Changes such as reducing workloads, ensuring sufficient staffing of nurses, sound administration system, ensuring proper labeling of medication, and administration of correct medicines at the appropriate stretch should be adhered to in all health care systems (Hughes and Blegen, 2008). The purpose of this essay is to examine and analyze the issue of medication error while exploring its possible evidence-based and best practice resolutions. The paper also looks into the role played by nurses as primary administrators of medication and other stakeholders while addressing the issue.
Factors Leading to Medication Errors
Medication mistakes are preventable occurrences in the health care profession which may cause harm to the patient through improper administration of medication. The circumstances originate from either expert practice, application of health care procedures, products, drug packaging, labeling, and prescription. It may also be due to compounding, distributing, education, nursing, and use (Hammoudi et al., 2018). The factors facilitating the issue include medication confusion due to their similar packaging and naming, leading to mistakes connected to verbal description. Lack of commonality in the use of medication or joint leads to allergic reactions and those requiring testing before usage to maintain their therapeutic standards.
Researchers reveal that the issue may not always lead to adverse consequences, and it is prone to all healthcare system settings (Hammoudi et al., 2018). However, those administered in critical units such as intensive care, emergency, intervention, and diagnostic have a higher chance of causing adverse drug events. Researchers discovered that most deaths connected to medication errors involve the central nervous system and its agents. An example of wrong doses of medications may lead to about 40% of deaths, while incorrect dosage 16% and 9% due to faulty channel of administration (Hughes and Blegen, 2008). They result from mishaps, confusion of names due to similarities, incorrect container branding, incompetency, etc.
Evidence-based and Solutions for Improving Medication Errors
Several evidence-based efforts from The Joint Commission and FDA have helped reduce the chances of medication errors. The Joint Commission produced a list of drugs with similar names health care providers consider problematic. The FDA invented the Black Box system in 1995, which issues warnings to patients on medications with increased risks such as antidepressants. Another effort done by the Institute for Safe Medicine Practices lists all high-alert drugs proven to cause adverse consequences such as insulin, narcotics, etc. (Hughes and Blegen, 2008). More strategies geared towards preventing medication errors include the standardization of communication within the health care system, educating patients, especially during modification of medications, to understand signs and symptoms and expected outcomes. Healthcare management should optimize nurses’ workflow, creating double-checks for drugs while paying extra attention to high-risk ones. Another intelligent way of reducing these errors is through high technology solutions such as bar code scanning for confirming correct medication for patients. When administrating drugs through IVs, smart infusion help verify the right dosage of medicines. As The Joint Commission interprets it, medical errors are any events likely to carry significant adverse outcomes on patients. Its cost is estimated to be twenty billion dollars annually (Rodziewicz et al., 2021). About a hundred thousand patients die from the issue each year.
Enhancing Quality and Safety
Ways Which Nurses Can Coordinate Care to Decrease Medical Error and its Cost
Nurses are the principal administrators of medication in the healthcare system, and they play a massive part in the medication errors issue. According to Hughes (2011), nurses should employ specific strategies to c