Potential Solution to Medication Error

Medication Errors
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Medication Errors
Introduction
More than 6,500 prescription drugs and several over-the-counter medications are available in the United Kingdom alone. Such a large figure of medicines is also prone to errors. Medication errors are one of the most prevalent drug safety challenges to NHS, amounting to a cost of over 98 million pounds each year (Tariq et al., 2018). Medication errors might not seem like a jolting issue. However, the intensity of harm varies and is subjective to the patient’s pathology, overall health, age, and sensitivity. An unintentional error in administering a drug may require hospitalization, resulting in congenital disabilities, disability, acute allergic reactions, and even death (Alqenae et al., 2020). Medication errors are also responsible for creating superbugs and prevalent antibiotic resistance. Prescribing an unauthorized drug or administering medication via an improper route (oral, subcutaneous, intravenous, and intramuscular), the wrong concentration of medication or to the irrelevant patient, excess or inadequate dosage are the errors at healthcare providers’ end. However, people are also responsible for these errors as they often miss doses or do not take the medication with appropriate gaps. The entire purpose of this paper is to analyze medication errors and the reasons behind them. The paper also aims to highlight potential solutions to the problem and their implications as drug errors are largely preventable, yet they occur so frequently and are interwoven in the fiber of our healthcare system.
Elements of The Problem/Issue
Since the provision of any drug therapy is a lengthy and complex process, errors can occur at any step, both on the healthcare providers’ end and the patients’ end (Gracia et al., 2019). Some identifiable causes of error in medication arise through inaccurate diagnosis, wrong prescriptions, miscalculations in dosage, incorrect distribution of medicines, problems with drug administering devices, lack of communication among healthcare providers (such as nurses, physicians, and pharmacists), and patient and an overall deficit of patient education or interest. Other causes of the error could be due to medical abbreviations or acronyms, look-alike sound-alike drug names, or similar packaging of unrelated drugs.
A study by Alqenae et al. (2020) systematically reviews the ‘prevalence and nature of medication errors and medication-related harm the following discharge from hospital to community settings.’ The authors searched among ten electronic databases and a multitude of grey literature to find fifty-four studies published over two decades between 1990 to 2019 that included unintentional drug discrepancies resulting from a medication error. Their results showed that over 50% of medication error cases were adults. The study also showed that children below 12 had medication error occurrences of over 66%, and at least 10% of these cases had adverse outcomes. The study has been enlightening and awakening for the healthcare system as it compelled them to take action in monitoring drugs and preventing negative consequences. The study also indicated that the drug classes having adverse implications due to error were analgesics, antibiotics, cardiovascular drugs, and certain antidiabetics. This study is quite credible and concrete as it is recent (only two years old) and is cited by quite a few authors.
Another study by Assiri et al. (2018) focuses on the ‘epidemiology of medication errors, error-related adverse events and risk factors for errors in adults.’ The article systematically reviews international literature. The results indicated that at least 15 people out of 1000 people had experienced drug-related errors. The errors were an increased number of patients and more than one physician inpatient care involvement. The intensity of the effects of medication errors also depended on the patient’s age, comorbidities, and anticoagulant use. This article provides a rational epidemiological insight into errors related to drug therapies with solid reasoning.
Moreover, a mixed (multi-method) study by Gracia et al. (2019) focuses on the ‘medication errors and drug knowledge gaps among critical-care nurses.’ The study had three phases comprising both qualitative and quantitative techniques. Phase one consisted of reviewing patients’ medical records; in phase two, they conducted interviews with a focus group, and in phase three, they carried out an ad hoc questionnaire. The study results emphasize that nurses who have inadequate knowledge about the drugs should be using the act as catalysts in the occurrence of medication errors.
Analysis
Medication errors are one of the leading causes of complications in patients’ pathology, especially in developing countries. Most drug-related errors jeopardize the health conditions of patients in intensive care units. Overcrowded health facilities, including hospitals, care homes, or pharmacies, are also places for medication errors as the number of patients exceeds the number of caregivers (Manias et al., 2020). This issue holds significant importance as I have worked in a pharmacy before and now realize the magnitude of the problem and its implications on public health.
People who are more vulnerable to medication errors are not literate enough or lack awareness regarding medication, live in government-subsidized housing, and do not have health insurance. These people do not have somebody caring for them, children, the elderly or disabled people, people with poor sight or memory, and people who self-medicate themselves or their families. It is alarming how many people do not realize the dangers associated with medication errors because a small mistake of mixing opioids with sedatives can prove to be fatal. Even if some drug errors would not have acute outcomes, they might affect the body otherwise. For example, certain vitamins or supplements reduce the absorption of contraceptive pills (MacDowell et al., 2018).
Considering Options
In the United States, medication errors in hospitals alone cause over a hundred thousand deaths annually. This figure is higher than the number of deaths from AIDS, cancers, or road accidents (Manias et al., 2020). Drug administration mistakes pose a serious threat to patient health and contribute to avoidable mortality in healthcare settings. It is as simple as following the...