Causes Of Medication Error
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Why Do Medication Errors Happen
PositionsResearch and Clinical TrialsSee how Mayo Clinic research and clinical trials advance the science of medicine and improve patient care. Explore now. EducationMayo Graduate SchoolMayo Medical SchoolMayo School of Continuous Professional DevelopmentMayo School of Graduate Medical EducationMayo School of Health SciencesAlumni CenterVisit Our SchoolsEducators at Mayo Clinic train tomorrow’s leaders to deliver compassionate, high-value, safe medication error images patient care. Choose a degree. For Medical ProfessionalsProvider RelationsOnline Services for Referring PhysiciansVideo CenterPublicationsContinuing Medical EducationMayo Medical LaboratoriesProfessional ServicesExplore Mayo Clinic’s many resources and see jobs available for medical professionals. Get updates. Products & ServicesHealthy Living ProgramSports MedicineBooks and more ...Mayo Clinic Health LetterMedical ProductsPopulation Health and Wellness ProgramsHealth Plan AdministrationMedical Laboratory ServicesContinuing Education for Medical Professionals Giving to Mayo ClinicGive NowYour ImpactFrequently Asked QuestionsContact Us to GiveGive to Mayo ClinicHelp set a new world standard in care for people everywhere. Give now. Healthy LifestyleConsumer health Print Sections BasicsConsumer health basicsComplementary and alternative medicineMedicationsIn-DepthExpert AnswersExpert BlogMultimediaResourcesNews From Mayo Clinic Products and services Free E-newsletter Subscribe to Housecall Our general interest e-newsletter keeps you up to date on a wide variety of health topics. Sign up now Medication errors: Cut your risk with these tipsMedication errors are preventable. Your best defense is asking questions and being informed about the medications you take.By Mayo Clinic Staff Medication errors may sound harmless, but mistakes in prescribing, dispensin
News Medical Errors: Causes and Solutions We all make mistakes, after all, to err is to be human. However, imagine a population the size of Miami, roughly 400,000, needlessly wiped out on a yearly basis due to preventable medical how to avoid medication error errors, and the scope of this epidemic quickly comes into focus. Iatrogenic mortality (death sources of medication error caused by medical care or treatment) is now considered thethird leading cause of death in the United States. The majority of these errors were medication medicine errors related and occurred in the hospital setting, harming 1.5 million others who were fortunate enough to escape death. The operative word here is ‘preventable’ since life itself carries risk and unavoidably ends in death for all. Additionally, http://www.mayoclinic.org/healthy-lifestyle/consumer-health/in-depth/medication-errors/art-20048035 certain diseases lead to death despite any heroic attempts to treat and/or cure. Medical error is defined as a preventable adverse effect of medical care whether or not evident or harmful to the patient. Often viewed as the human error factor in healthcare , this is a highly complex subject related to many factors such as incompetency, lack of education or experience, illegible handwriting, language barriers, inaccurate documentation, gross negligence, and fatigue to name a http://scribeamerica.com/blog/medical-errors-causes-solutions/ few. There are also many different types of errors ranging from medication errors, misdiagnosis, under and over treatment, and surgical mishaps. Medical errors are also associated with extremes of age, new procedures, urgency, and the severity of the medical condition being treated. Are medical errors happening more frequently over time? It would appear that way since a 1999 study estimated98,000 iatrogenic deaths making it the sixth leading cause of death in the U.S. A later study in 2010 yielded almost twice that many deaths, at 180,000. The most recent study in 2013 suggested the numbers range from 210,000 to 440,000 deaths per year. The latter number would make it the third leading cause of death after heart disease and cancer. However, which number is accurate? No one really knows since these deaths can only be estimated and extrapolated. For example, how is it possible to measure deaths due to treatments that should have been provided but were not? Medical records are often inaccurate and providers might be reluctant to disclose mistakes. It might be a waste of time to quibble over the exact numbers since all would agree the numbers are simply too high and unacceptable in our relatively affluent and medically sophisticated society. Studying the sources of errors and implementing ways to correct the problem, i.e. prevention, seem to be a more
issue Rights & permissions Journal disclaimer SubmitInstructions to authors Online submission Self-archiving policy Referee information http://qjmed.oxfordjournals.org/content/102/8/513 Open access options Subscribe AdvertiseCorporate services Advertising Reprints and ePrints Sponsored supplements Books and custom publishing EditorProfessor Seamas Donnelly. Impact factor2.8245 Year impact http://www.fda.gov/Drugs/ResourcesForYou/Consumers/ucm143553.htm factor2.634 Published on behalf ofThe Association of Physicians. Medication errors: what they are, how they happen, and how to avoid them You have accessRestricted access medication error J.K. Aronson DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/qjmed/hcp052 513-521 First published online: 20 May 2009 ArticleFigures & dataInformation & metricsExplorePDF Abstract A medication error is a failure in the treatment process that leads to, or has the potential to lead to, harm to the patient. Medication errors can occur in deciding which medicine and dosage of medication error regimen to use (prescribing faults—irrational, inappropriate, and ineffective prescribing, underprescribing, overprescribing); writing the prescription (prescription errors); manufacturing the formulation (wrong strength, contaminants or adulterants, wrong or misleading packaging); dispensing the formulation (wrong drug, wrong formulation, wrong label); administering or taking the medicine (wrong dose, wrong route, wrong frequency, wrong duration); monitoring therapy (failing to alter therapy when required, erroneous alteration). They can be classified, using a psychological classification of errors, as knowledge-, rule-, action- and memory-based errors. Although medication errors can occasionally be serious, they are not commonly so and are often trivial. However, it is important to detect them, since system failures that result in minor errors can later lead to serious errors. Reporting of errors should be encouraged by creating a blame-free, non-punitive environment. Errors in prescribing include irrational, inappropriate, and ineffective prescribing, underprescribing and overprescribing (collectively called prescribing faults) and errors in writing the prescription (including i
Home Food Drugs Medical Devices Radiation-Emitting Products Vaccines, Blood & Biologics Animal & Veterinary Cosmetics Tobacco Products Drugs Home Drugs Resources for You Information for Consumers (Drugs) Strategies to Reduce Medication Errors: Working to Improve Medication Safety Share Tweet Linkedin Pin it More sharing options Linkedin Pin it Email Print When Jacquelyn Ley shattered her elbow on the soccer field, her parents set out to find her the best care in Minneapolis. "We drove past five other hospitals to get to the one we wanted," says Carol Ley, M.D., an occupational health physician. Her husband, an orthopedic surgeon, made sure Jacquelyn got the right surgeon. After a successful three-hour surgery to repair the broken bones, Jacquelyn, who was 9 at the time, received the pain medicine morphine through a pump and was hooked up to a heart monitor, breathing monitor, and blood oxygen monitor. Her recovery was going so well that doctors decided to turn off the morphine pump and to forgo regular checks of her vital signs.Carol Ley slept in her daughter's hospital room that night. When she woke up in the middle of the night and checked on her, Jacquelyn was barely breathing. "I called her name, but she wouldn't respond," she says. "I shook her and called for help." The morphine pump hadn't been shut down, but had accidentally been turned up high. The narcotic flooded Jacquelyn's body. She survived the overdose, but it was a close call. "If three more hours had gone by, I don't think Jacquelyn would have survived," Ley says. "Fortunately, I woke up."Ley was pleased with the way the hospital handled the error. "They came right out and said the morphine pump was incorrectly programmed, they told me the steps they were going to take to make sure Jacquelyn was OK, and they also told me what they were going to do to make sure this kind of mistake won't happen again. And that's very important to me." The hospital began using pumps that are easier to use and revamped nurses' training. Ley believes there were many contributors to the error, including the fact that it was Labor Day weekend and there were s