Medication Error Resource

Medication error accounts for over 1.5 million hospital adverse drug events in the United States. Adverse drug events or ADEs are injuries resulting from errors in the administration of prescribed medication due to such factors as mathematical miscalculation, wrong information, lack of communication or knowledge, illegible writing, and staff shortages. 

FDA Regulations

The Federal Drug Administration does not require medication errors to be reported to the FDA or any other government agency. Most are handled in-house through the facility where the error occurred. However, the FDA does allow voluntary reportage of med errors. If there is a serious problem with an FDA-approved product or medication error, a program called MedWatch is the recourse to maintain surveillance that eventually may result in higher patient safety.

Common Medication Errors

Medication errors are preventable consequences of miscommunication, procedural mishaps, other human error, and fatigue. Drugs that look like other drugs, classifications that are similar, and name confusion can also contribute to error.

Dangers of Medication Errors

Patient harm in a medical setting or at home is the main consequence of medication error. Dennis Quaid and his wife, Kimberley Buffington, found out the dangers the hard way in November 2007 when their newborn twins, Thomas and Zoe, were given 10,000 units of heparin instead of the usual 10 units for babies. Heparin is an anticoagulant. Anticoagulants "thin" blood. The babies survived, but the error brought the dangers of medication error to a national perspective.

Abbreviation Error

Eliminating confusing abbreviations and symbols from medication prescription forms and patient records may help alleviate medication errors. Abbreviations are prone to misinterpretation. This misinterpretation may lead a patient to harm if abbreviations are unclear or communicated poorly.

Tools for Proper Medication Dosing

There are many online tools to teach or to calculate medication dosing. No medical practitioner can keep so much varied information in their heads ready to use at a moment's notice. There is a constant barrage of updated and new information regarding drugs and their usage, contraindications, dosing requirements.

Other Resources

Quality assurance and safety are paramount to keeping patients safe and people safe in their own homes using over-the-counter or OTC drugs. Paying attention to drug recalls, reading the labels, calling the pharmacist for possible drug interactions, and taking medication as prescribed or recommended is the best safety advice for consumers.