What is a medication error? The National Coordinating Council for Medication Error Reporting and Prevention defines it as follows:
“A medication error is any preventable event that may cause or lead to inappropriate medication use or patient harm while the medication is in the control of the health care 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” (www.nccmerp.org).
According to the American Medical Association, medication errors such as illegible prescriptions or health care workers administering wrong dosages of medication kill an estimated 44,000 to 98,000 Americans annually. They also state that these statist
· Another project studies medication error as a result of kidney failure in hospitalized patients
· First they investigated medication errors that would predispose elderly patients to hospitalization
· View the patients allergies including: medication allergies, food allergies, and seasonal allergies