According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), unsafe medication practices and medication errors are a leading cause of injury and avoidable harm in healthcare systems across the world. Globally, the cost associated with medication errors has been estimated at USD $42 billion annually.
What are medication-related errors?
Errors can occur at different stages of the medication use process. Medication errors occur when weak medication systems and/or human factors such as fatigue, poor environmental conditions or staff shortages affect prescribing, transcribing, dispensing, administration and monitoring practices, which can then result in severe harm, disability and even death.
Medication-related errors can have serious consequences on patients. They are however avoidable.
What are these Medication-related errors?
Administration Errors: Wrong route of administration; swallowing a drug meant to be placed under the tongue, Taking your pills at the wrong time, Giving a drug meant for patent A to a patient
Prescribing Errors: Wrong dose; this could be underdose or overdose, Wrong medication; choosing the wrong medicine for an illness, Ineligible handwriting; writing in a way that other people may not find easy to read
Dispensing Errors: Incorrect drug labelling, Dispensing the wrong drug instead of what was prescribed, Mistaking a drug for another drug because they sound alike
Monitoring Errors: Lack of follow-up after giving a patient medications, Inadequate counselling on the direction for the use
Environmental Factors: Distraction during prescribing or dispensing, Reading prescription labels under poor lighting can cause an error, Healthcare providers working longer than expected hours and feeling very tired while on duty
Communication Errors: Poor communication between the Doctor/Pharmacist and the patient, Language barrier, Not waiting to get complete information before leaving. If you read through these errors, you will understand that everyone has a role to play in avoiding the errors. The doctor, pharmacist, patient, and also the hospital or pharmacy management.
By being aware of these potential errors, we can prevent them and ensure safer medication use. Ask questions when things are not clear. Don’t be in a hurry to leave.
While pharmacists review your prescription properly and dispense correctly, doctors choose your drugs wisely, especially in polypharmacy; contact a pharmacist for clarity when necessary.
Multiple interventions to address the frequency and impact of medication errors have already been developed, yet their implementation is varied. A wide mobilization of stakeholders supporting sustained actions is required. In response to this, WHO has identified Medication Without Harm as the theme for the third Global Patient Safety Challenge.
The third WHO Global Patient Safety Challenge: Medication Without Harm will propose solutions to address many of the obstacles the world faces today to ensure the safety of medication practices. WHO’s goal is to achieve widespread engagement and commitment of WHO Member States and professional bodies around the world to reduce the harm associated with medication.
Medication Without Harm aims to reduce severe avoidable medication-related harm by 50%, globally in the next 5 years. It was formally launched at the Second Global Ministerial Patient Safety Summit in Bonn, Germany on 29 March 2017.
