Medication Error Report

Medication errors happen all the time, unfortunately. “According to a 2006 Institute of Medicine report, at least 1.5 million preventable medication-related adverse events occur in the Unites States every year, but the true number could be much higher” (Adams, S. C., Federwisch, M., & Ramos, H., 2014). The last straw in medication administration is the nurse. It is so important for the nurse to be very observant when administering medications, so that errors do not occur and lead to further complications. Medication error prevention is considered to be a primary focus of nursing care (Adams, S. C., Federwisch, M., & Ramos, H., 2014). There are many distractions that contribute to nurses making medication errors. Nurses work in a chaotic environment, …show more content…
The following rights help contribute to successfully giving medications safely. The nurse should make sure they have the right patient. This is very important because it can lead to numerous problems if the wrong patient is attained. The nurse should identify that they have the right patient by asking the patient for their name and date of birth, and then verifying that with the patient’s bracelet and electronic medical record. Next you should make sure that the right medication is going to be given. This is done by verifying what is on the package of the medication with what is in the electronic medical record. Then the amount needs to be verified. There are certain protocols to do with different medications as far as verifying the dose. For example, insulin dosage must be checked by two RN’s before it can be given to a patient. This is because, insulin has a high risk drug. Dosage amount is important, because the patient needs enough medication for it to be effective, but not too much to put the patient at risk for toxicity. Medications are given at certain time intervals to help the medications react effectively and most appropriate. Making sure medications are given at the right time is included in the five rights. One last thing to make sure to do before giving a medication is making sure it is the right route. Medications are given via different routes …show more content…
It consist of electronically reading symbols from the patient’s wrist band and matching the information with the electronic medical record (Cummings, G. G., Marck, P., Wulff, K. & Yurtseven, O., 2011). It has helped reduce medication errors effectively. “One hospital using bar-coded medication administration reported a 22% reduction in dose-omission errors and the prevention of an estimated 1,300 medication errors in a span of eight months” (Adams, S. C., Federwisch, M., & Ramos, H., 2014). The following five rights, right patient, is confirmed using bar-code administration by scanning the patient’s bracelet to verify with the electronic medical record. This ensures that the nurse is in the correct chart. Another right that bar-code administration is used for is right medication. The bar coding system acts as a check system (Cummings, G. G., Marck, P., Wulff, K. & Yurtseven, O., 2011). The medication package is scanned to verity and match the information in the electronic medical record. If an incorrect medication is scanned, the system will alert the nurse (Adams, S. C., Federwisch, M., & Ramos, H., 2014). On the electronic medical record the right time, dose, and route can also be verified. When the medication administration process is complete the sign option is chosen on the electronic medical record and this is the documentation. Bar-code administration is also sometimes referred to as bar code point of