Medication Error- How Does It Happen?
There are thought to be over one and a half million medication errors resulting in unintentional injuries each year in the U.S. When a pharmacist says "This means, according to reports, medication errors are the third leading cause of death in America," what they're really saying is "medication errors kill thousands of Americans each year."
If patients knew these grim facts, they would believe everything you tell them. However, most of your patients trust you and go along with what you tell them to a tee.
Since it is essential you identify all of the contributing factors, it is imperative that you are mindful of medication errors. Before knowing it all, ask for prepackaged medication dispensing to make sure there are no errors at all.
How Medical Errors Take Place?
The FDA regards a medication error as having led to harm when a patient is given the wrong medication. Medication errors are also believe to be avoidable, provided they're looked out for by you, the patient, or the caregiver, when a better education is provided for the latter two.
Confusion with Drug Names
At the Institute for Medication Safety and Poisonous Drug Preparation, they came up with a list of medications that sounded alike. If you take these medications by mistake, you may be harmed.
Clonazepin may be difficult to differentiate from the names which are similar to it, like clonazepin and klonopin. If you're inadvertently getting these two confused, your blood pressure can drop to dangerous levels, life-threatening levels.
Keeping things simple is a sound strategy: To prevent drug name confusion, use software that warns you if there are multiple medications with the same name, then makes you triple-check your medications. Office-based dispensing also notifies you if any interactions with the patient's other medications have occurred.
Labels
The labels we are required to include must provide quite a lot of information, however, are very small. Everything is on the label, including the doctor's and patient's names, and the medications and possible side effects
Even if all the information on a label is correct, a patient can be misinformed, which can be dangerous, particularly because information is given so clearly. Many abbreviations are difficult for patients to understand, and should be avoided. With prepackaged medication dispensing, you can solve the labeling errors once and for all.
Issues with Dosage
The right dosage for the food supplement at the proper time and amount for an active growth stage of the kitten growth.
Inevitably, everyone will do something wrong at some point. There needs to be more change when mistakes can risk the patient's life. It is crucial when it comes to patient comprehension of dosage. You must ensure that the patient understands the dosage you have prescribed, and double-check your prescription.
If you want the patient to take 7.5 milligrams of a medication, make sure they know they're getting 75 milligrams of it. Getting the dosage one decimal point off by one can have significant side effects. More technology can be used to assist you in preventing errors in this category.
Packaging
Every medication has a protective lid. Grouping all the pills in the same container simplifies medication administration. To tell the truth, this is fine, but it would be confusing for patients who can't remember whether or not they took their pills. If they're unable to remember whether or not to take their medicine, they can decide to skip the rest of the day or take a second dose to see if they get better later.
Accurate packaging is an option. Prepackaged medication and its dispensing has incredible benefits for patients, which means they don't have to do anything.
Choose PD-RX Pharmaceuticals
In Oklahoma, PD-RX Pharmaceuticals is serving people with flawless prepackaged medication dispensing. Place your trust in us and give us a call now.
**Disclaimer: The information on this page is not intended to be a doctor's advice, nor does it create any form of patient-doctor relationship.