Medication errors haven ’t gone away

A 10-year analysis of medical malpractice cases indicates that medication errors continue to represent a significant risk to patients and health care providers, despite myriad efforts to eliminate that risk. For events that occurred beginning in 2003 (12 percent) to those from 2012 (12 percent) the proportion of cases alleging a medication error was, essentially, unchanged. Raised awareness, advances in technology, and millions of dollars directed at improving the medication process, have not yet initiated a downward trend. But that does not mean that nothing has changed: patients now encounter fewer errors in the more mechanical, ordering/dispensing/administering steps of the medication process, and significantly more risk in the clinical judgment/communication aspects of monitoring and managing their medication regimens The annual volume of inpatient drug orders and outpatient prescriptions is in the billions; more than 100 million Americans take four or more medications regularly. From beginning to end, the medication process is a malpractice minefield for providers all across the field of health care. Given those big prescription figures, the raw number of malpractice cases is relatively small: physicians and nurses (and patients) mostly get it right. But, within the realm of malpractice, medication-related events often represent an extreme breakdown in the standard of care and — most often — the patient at the center of such cases has suffered a significant i...
Source: Kevin, M.D. - Medical Weblog - Category: General Medicine Authors: Tags: Meds Medications Source Type: blogs