Medication errors and how to prevent them as a pharm tech. Medication errors are mistakes that occur when medication is being prescribed, labeled, or even administered. Any error that occurs from ordering to administering a medication can be referred to as a medication error.
The National Coordinating Council for Medication Error Reporting and Prevention defines a medication error as: “… any preventable event that may cause or lead to inappropriate medication use or patient harm while the medication is in the control of the healthcare professional, patient, or consumer. Such events may be related to professional practice, health care products, procedures, and systems, including prescribing; order communication; product labeling, packaging, and nomenclature; compounding; dispensing; distribution; administration; education; monitoring; and use.”
Medical errors can sometimes cause severe harm or even lead to death.
As a pharmacy technician or pharmacy staff in charge of handling prescriptions, labeling medications, and dispensing medications, you need to be very careful and focused to avoid making any mistakes.
In this article, we will be revealing the causes of medication errors, the types of medication errors, and how to prevent them.
Causes Of Medication Errors
Poor Communication: lack of information and poor communication between doctors and other health professionals is one of the major causes of medication errors.
LASA (look alike, sound alike) drugs: drug names that sound alike or look-alike also contribute to the occurrence of medication errors as pharmacists or technicians can mistakenly pick one for another.
Poor Record and Documentation: poor documentation of medications, and patient information can lead to a medication error, for instance, not documenting the patient's last medications can make another healthcare provider administer the same drug for them which can lead to overdosing and cause other harm.
Other factors that can cause medication errors include;
· Expired drug: Expired products also contribute to the occurrence of medication errors.
· Incorrect Strength: strength is very important in a prescription order and dispensing drugs, a mistake in strength can either cause therapeutic failure (underdose) or harmful effects on the patient (overdose).
· Incorrect dosage form: Not administering the correct dosage form can lead to medication errors, for instance, a prescription order calls for an extended released form, and an immediate released form is being dispensed. Such a mistake in dosage form can cause harm to the patient.
· Distraction: Distraction is one of the major causes of medication errors, most cases of medication errors have been linked to distraction, no doubt, pharmacists and pharmacy technicians have a lot on their desks to do, from receiving prescriptions, checking errors, filling orders, counseling to answering phone calls. they can sometimes be distracted and make mistakes while filling orders and dispensing.
· Illegible writing: illegible writing of prescription orders also contributes to medication errors.
· Known Allergy: Some patients may have allergies to certain medications, not asking enough questions from patients before dispensing their medications can lead to medical errors.
Types Of Medication Errors
Common medication errors include;
· Dose error; Inappropriate dose
· Route error; wrong route of administration.
· Strength error
· Omission
· Incorrect patient
· Frequency error
· Formulation error
How to Prevent Medication Errors
Preventing medication errors is sometimes impossible, but the truth is, it is preventable and avoidable with the right approach, now let’s look at ways to prevent medication errors.
1. Effective Communication: Everything starts with communication, from doctor to pharmacist, to nurse, and to technicians. To prevent medication errors, a good and effective communication system must be established between the healthcare providers.
2. Using The 5 Rs of Medication: Following the 5 Rs of medication also known as the 5 rights of medications can help prevent medication errors.
The 5 rights of medications are as follows;
· Right drug: check the actual name of the drug and not the brand name, this right ensures that the right drug is dispensed
· Right dose; confirm the dose of the drug on the prescription order and ensure it correlates with the standard dosing
· Right Route; Check the route of administration, is it per oral, IV, or IM, always double-check
· Right time: Timing is very important when it comes to treatment, always double-check the timing
· Right patient: This ensures the right medication is given to the right person, always confirm identity before administering the drugs
3. Record Numbers Clearly: Illegible writing is one of the major causes of medication among health workers, always write clearly, especially when recording numbers like dosage strength. For instance, writing 0.50 mg like .50mg without zero in the front of the decimal point can make it look like 50mg. and this can have a serious effect on a patient if another staff member goes ahead and dispenses 50mg instead of 0.50mg.
4. Proper Documentation: proper documentation can help to prevent medication errors, documenting everything you do makes information available to other staff.
5. Use Name Alert: Having a name alert system in place can help to reduce medication errors. Some patients have similar names, name alert can help you prevent the mix-up of medications. Also name alert should be established for drugs with similar names, this will help prevent administering the wrong drugs.
6. Avoid using drug abbreviations when writing orders: It is advisable not to use drug abbreviations when writing prescriptions, as this can cause confusion or have other meanings sometimes, always write the drug name in full.
7. Drug guide: having a drug guide that will show drug information, dosage, interactions, and side effects is highly recommended. It can be an electronic or manual guide, just make sure to have one in place.
Wrapping up
The risk associated with medication errors can cause severe harm and threaten lives, with medication errors, it is important to learn from the error to prevent it from happening again.
Learning from the medication error involves documenting the medication error, accessing the cause of the medication error, and putting precautions in place to avoid the error from happening again.
Preventing medical errors can be a little bit daunting but with the right approach, preventive systems, and attitude, a world of zero medication errors is achievable.
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Medication Errors and How To Prevent Them As A Pharm Tech written by: Faruq Niniola
