Avoiding Medication Errors: A Critical Responsibility for Healthcare Providers

Abstract

Clinical Situation: Medication error Medication error Medication error is one of the most common cases that physician has been held responsible for. There are many factors that could lead to these errors, just to name a few like; wrong labeling, patient information and improper drugs acquisition and administration. According to the US Food and Drug Administration, it gets over 100,000 claims each year about alleged pharmaceutical errors in the United States. Moreover, it has been projected that prescription mistakes cause harm to about 1.5 million individuals every year. Each of these persons has a story to share about an error that may have been averted. In my internship program there happened to be a prescription error where a physician administered excess amount of Naproxen to a patient, this caused to the patient to suffer high blood pressure. The Regional Health drug department penalized the facility with a maximum fine of $12,000. The patient had to take ACE inhibitors administered by another physician to low down his blood pressure to normal. Although the medicine type was right, the specified amount was delivered 5-8 times by the nurse. Regulators stated that a number of reasons led to this blunder, including a lack of protections for high-alert drugs, the administering nurse's lack of familiarity with Naproxen, and the failure to have a second nurse sign off on dispensing the prescription.