Hospital Medication Error Rates
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Me Forgot Password? Login or Sign up for a Free Account My Topics of Interest My CME My Profile Sign Out Home Topics Issues WebM&M Cases Perspectives Primers Submit Case CME / CEU Training Catalog medication error rate calculation Info Glossary About PSNet Help & FAQ Contact PSNet Email Updates Editorial Team medication error definition Technical Expert/Advisory Panel Terms & Conditions / Copyright PSNet Privacy Policy External Link Disclaimer Patient Safety Primer Last Updated: medication error statistics 2015 March 2015 Medication Errors Topics Resource Type Patient Safety Primers Safety Target Medication Errors/Preventable Adverse Drug Events Look-Alike, Sound-Alike Drugs More Share Facebook Twitter Linkedin Email Print Background and definitions Prescription medication medication errors in hospitals statistics 2014 use is widespread, complex, and increasingly risky. Clinicians have access to an armamentarium of more than 10,000 prescription medications, and nearly one-third of adults in the United States take 5 or more medications. Advances in clinical therapeutics have undoubtedly resulted in major improvements in health for patients with many diseases, but these benefits have also been accompanied by increased risks. An adverse drug event (ADE)
Medication Errors Statistics
is defined as harm experienced by a patient as a result of exposure to a medication, and ADEs account for nearly 700,000 emergency department visits and 100,000 hospitalizations each year. ADEs affect nearly 5% of hospitalized patients, making them one of the most common types of inpatient errors; ambulatory patients may experience ADEs at even higher rates. Transitions in care are also a well-documented source of preventable harm related to medications. As with the more general term adverse event, the occurrence of an ADE does not necessarily indicate an error or poor quality care. A medication error refers to an error (of commission or omission) at any step along the pathway that begins when a clinician prescribes a medication and ends when the patient actually receives the medication. Preventable adverse drug events result from a medication error that reaches the patient and causes any degree of harm. It is generally estimated that about half of ADEs are preventable. Medication errors that do not cause any harm—either because they are intercepted before reaching the patient, or by luck—are often called potential ADEs. An ameliorable ADE is one in which the patient experienced harm from
Drug Event AlgorithmRecommendations / StatementsFor Consumers Statement on Medication Error Rates Statement from NCC MERP Use of Medication Error Rates to Compare Health Care Organizations is of No Value The use of medication error rates to compare health care
Medication Errors In Nursing
organizations is not recommended for the following reasons: Differences in culture among what percentage of medication errors occur in neonatal intensive care units? health care organizations can lead to significant differences in the reporting of medication errors. Organizations that encourage medication error types of medication errors reporting by providing incentives and resources to report within a non-punitive, continuous quality improvement arena will likely report more medication errors than organizations that wish to conceal errors and punish individuals https://psnet.ahrq.gov/primers/primer/23/medication-errors who are involved in or report errors. Differences in the definition of a medication error among health care organizations can lead to significant differences in the reporting and classification of medication errors. For example, some organizations may only consider actual errors that reach the patient as errors. Other organizations also will include potential errors and errors that do not reach the patient. http://www.nccmerp.org/statement-medication-error-rates The latter organizations will likely collect more medication errors, and information from reports of potential errors can sometimes be more useful in prevention efforts than reports of actual errors. Differences in the patient populations served by various health care organizations can lead to significant differences in the number and severity of medication errors occurring among organizations. For example, tertiary care hospitals generally may serve more severely ill patients than rehabilitation hospitals. In addition, the intensity of drug therapies, the types of drugs used, and the methods of drug distribution may be substantially different in these environments, thereby leading to differences in number and types of errors. Differences in the type(s) of reporting and detection systems for medication errors among health care organizations can lead to significant differences in the number of medication errors recorded. Passive reporting systems, relying upon voluntary reports from staff, are known to result in far fewer medication error reports than active surveillance systems are able to detect. Also, the number of error reports can be significantly different, depending on the type of active surveillance system (e.g., direct observation versus retrospe
Health Search databasePMCAll DatabasesAssemblyBioProjectBioSampleBioSystemsBooksClinVarCloneConserved DomainsdbGaPdbVarESTGeneGenomeGEO DataSetsGEO ProfilesGSSGTRHomoloGeneMedGenMeSHNCBI Web SiteNLM CatalogNucleotideOMIMPMCPopSetProbeProteinProtein ClustersPubChem BioAssayPubChem CompoundPubChem SubstancePubMedPubMed https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1200672/ HealthSNPSparcleSRAStructureTaxonomyToolKitToolKitAllToolKitBookToolKitBookghUniGeneSearch termSearch Advanced Journal list Help Journal ListProc (Bayl http://www.hospitalsafetyscore.org/newsroom/display/hospitalerrors-thirdleading-causeofdeathinus-improvementstooslow Univ Med Cent)v.17(3); 2004 JulPMC1200672 Proc (Bayl Univ Med Cent). 2004 Jul; 17(3): 357–361. PMCID: PMC1200672A baseline study of medication error rates at Baylor University Medical Center in preparation for implementation of a computerized physician order entry medication error systemChristina E. Seeley, MPH, MT(ASCP),1 David Nicewander, MS,2 Robert Page, MPA,1 and Peter A. Dysert, II, MD1,31From the Baylor Information Services, Baylor Health Care System, Dallas, Texas.2From the Institute for Health Care Research and Improvement, Baylor Health Care System, Dallas, Texas.3From the Department of Pathology, Baylor medication error rate University Medical Center, Baylor Health Care System, Dallas, Texas.Corresponding author.Corresponding author: Christina E. Seeley, MPH, MT(ASCP), Baylor Information Services, Baylor Health Care System, 3500 Gaston Avenue, Dallas, Texas 75246 (email: ude.htlaeHrolyaB@estsirhc).Author information ► Copyright and License information ►Copyright © 2004, Baylor University Medical CenterSee commentary "Invited commentary" on page 361.This article has been cited by other articles in PMC.AbstractObjective: To determine baseline levels of medication errors and their root causes so as to highlight areas of potential process improvements and serve as a ruler against which to measure future improvements.Design: A prospective pharmacist intervention study determining errors in 1014 medication orders at Baylor University Medical Center. Only errors in the process of medication ordering were documented; errors in drug administration were not considered. Root causes of errors were examined.Results: The baseline medication error rate was 111.4 per 1000 orde
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