Preventing Medication Errors
(5.0 Contact Hours)

Written by Gail Zyla, MS, RD

To successfully complete this course and receive your certificate, you must read the content online, pass the post test with a 70% or better, and complete the online evaluation form.

The price of this course is $39.00. You will only be asked to pay for the course if you decide to grade the post examination to earn a certificate with contact hours.

This activity was developed by Corexcel without support from any commercial interest.

It is Corexcel's policy to ensure fair balance, independence, objectivity, and scientific rigor in all programming. In compliance with the American Nurses Credentialing Center (ANCC) we require that faculty disclose all financial relationships with commercial interests over the past 12 months.

No planning committee member has indicated a relevant financial relationship with a commercial interest involved with the content contained in this course.

Corexcel's provider status through ANCC is limited to educational activities. Neither Corexcel nor the ANCC endorse commercial products.

About the Author

Gail Zyla, MS, RD, is a freelance writer, editor, and consultant who has been covering health issues for more than a decade. A registered dietitian, Zyla formerly served as senior editor of the Tufts University Health & Nutrition Letter and the Harvard Health Letter. She has also been a visiting lecturer at the Tufts University School of Nutrition Science and Policy and an instructor at the Tufts University Schools of Medicine and Dental Medicine.

Zyla's articles have appeared in wide variety of publications including Consumer Reports On Health, Parenting, Redbook, and Reader's Digest. She has received numerous awards for her work, including the American Dietetic Association Media Excellence Award and the William Solimene Award of Excellence from the New England Chapter of the American Medical Writers Association.

Portions of this course are taken from "Can We Stop Drug Errors?" which appeared in the September, 2000, issue of InTouch magazine. The article earned a gold award in the National Health Information Awards and the Will Solimene Award of Excellence from the New England chapter of the American Medical Writers Association.

Course Objectives

After reading Preventing Medication Errors the participant will be able to:

1. Define the extent of medication errors in the United States health care system.
2. Name the root cause of medication errors.
3. Identify steps in the delivery of drugs where mistakes most often occur.
4. Describe safety systems that may help prevent common medication errors.
5. Explain the difficulties inherent in documenting the number of mistakes typically made in health care settings.
6. Name strategies to correct error-prone aspects of drug prescription writing.
7. Identify examples of major drug packaging problems.
8. Name strategies to help ensure accurate verbal orders for medications.
9. Describe ways patients can help protect themselves from medication errors.
10. Identify the Institute of Medicine's strategies for reducing errors in the United States health care system.

 

Introduction

Every week, four out of five adults in the United States take prescription medications, over-the-counter drugs, or dietary supplements, according to a 2007 report from the Institute of Medicine (IoM), a division of the National Academy of Sciences. Nearly a third of these people take five or more different medications regularly. 

Unfortunately, thousands of people inadvertently take, or are given, the wrong dose of medication or are subject to other types of medication errors. Even more disturbing, many suffer injury due to the medication mishaps. Estimates show that when all types of errors are taken into account, hospital patients are subjected to at least one medication error daily. Some studies project that some 380,000 to 450,000 injuries due to medication errors occur in hospitals each year. Other research suggests that some 800,000 preventable adverse reactions due to medication errors occur in long-term care facilities. Overall, the 2007 Institute of Medicine report concluded that at least 1.5 million preventable adverse drug events occur in the United States each year.

Medication errors take their toll on patients, their families, their employers, hospitals, healthcare providers, and insurance companies. One study suggests that each adverse drug event that occurred in a hospital cost about $8750. Overall, preventable errors that cause injury are conservatively estimated to cost some $3.5 billion annually.

But despite their staggering costs, at least a quarter of medication errors are preventable, according to most studies. Although adverse drug events are often blamed on individual incompetence, experts say that the root of the problem is the lack of system-wide strategies to prevent common human errors. Fragmented delivery of health care also contributes to the problem.

This course will look at the problem of rampant medication errors. After completing the course, readers should understand the scope of the issue and comprehend strategies for error reduction that can be implemented in a variety of health care settings.

Health care providers should read the course material carefully and answer 70% of the questions in the post-evaluation exam correctly to earn continuing education credits. Estimated time to complete this activity is 5 hours.