EDEN UNIVERSITY

CLINICAL MEDICINE 3 : 1
MBP 2710 ASSIGNMENT 1
STUDENT ID : 2023050374

MEDICAL ERRORS
A medical error is any preventable adverse effect of care (iatrogenesis) whether or not it is evident or
harmful to the patient. This might include an inaccurate or incomplete diagnosis or treatment of a
disease or injury, syndrome, behavior, infection or other ailment. These errors occur when a healthcare
provider for example chooses an inappropriate method of care, or reads results wrongly

Medical errors have a significant impact on t the health care system affecting patient safety, quality of
care and healthcare costs. These errors can occur at any stage of the medication process, from
prescribing and dispensing to administering and monitoring.

There are several types of medical errors commonly observed in healthcare settings and these are
described below;

TYPES OF MEDICAL ERRORS

Prescription Errors
A prescription error is an event that is preventable that leads to or has led to unsuitable use of
medication or has led to harm to the person during the period of time that the medicine is controlled by
the clinician, the person or the consumer. This includes incorrect prescription, illegible handwriting, drug
allergy or irrational combinations.

Dispensing Errors
A dispensing error is a discrepancy between a prescription and the medication that the pharmacy
delivers to the patient or distributes to the ward on the basis of this prescription including the
dispensing of a medicine with inferior pharmaceutical or informational quality. These include;
dispensing incorrect medicine, dosage, strength or dosage form or failure to identify drug to drug
interactions and combinations.

Administrative Errors
These are errors between the drug therapy received by the patient and the drug therapy intended by the
prescriber. Administrative errors account for 26 to 32% of total medical errors. It involves wrong patient,
wrong drug, wrong route of administration, wrong dose, wrong method, wrong time.

Omission Errors
These are errors in which there is failure to give a medication dose before the next one scheduled or
failure to screen for drug interactions and contraindications.

Transcription Errors
Transcription is basically a process of making identical copy of prescription in the medical records. Errors
that occur during this process are known as transcription errors and these are due to factors such as
incomplete or illegible prescriber orders, unclear handwritings causing confusion, use of abbreviations
and lack of familiarity with drug names.

IMPACT OF MEDICAL ERRORS ON THE HEALTH SYSTEM

Medical errors have significant impacts on the health system which can lead to various consequences
and these can be as a result of systemic issues or plain human error, they cause severe physical injury
and possible death to patients.These preventable mistakes could also cause severe financial,
psychological and emotional stress to the healthcare provider and organization.Below are impacts of
medical errors on patients, healthcare, providers and hospitals.
Patient Harm
One of the primary impacts of medical errors is patient harm. Errors such as prescription or medication
erors,surgical errors, misdiagnosis or delayed diagnosis can result in serious harm or even death of the
patient.These adverse effects not only negatively affect the patient's health but also lead to emotional
distress for both the patient and their families.

Increases Healthcare Costs

In addition to patient harm, medial errors contribute to increased healthcare costs.This is due to the fact
that correcting errors often requires additional medical interventions, procedures, or prolonged hospital
stays.Moreover, legal cost associated with malpractice claims can further strain the healthcare system
financially.

Diminishes Patient Satisfaction and Trust in the Healthcare Sytem.

When patients experience errors, they may lose confidence in the healthcare providers and may be
hesitant to seek medical care in the future. This can lead to a breakdown in the patient-provider
relationship and negtatively impact the overall quality of healthcare delivery.

Reduced confidence among Healthcare Providers

Healthcare providers who inadvertently give the wrong medication to patients or experience a near miss,
suffer from shame,guilt and reduced self confidence.This is referred to as Second Victim and the effect of
this syndrome can be life threatening. The patients or patient's family members may sue the healthcare
provider for negligence and this can affect the healthcare professional's career negatively and
probability to have their practicing license revoked.

PREVENTION OF MEDICAL ERRORS

To address the impacts of medical errors on the health system,it is crucial to implement strategies for
error prevention and patient safety. Strategies for prevention of medical errors icnlude;

Establishment of Roburst Reporting Sytems

Encouraging a culture of transparency and reporting of medical errors is essential. Establishing systems
for reporting errors, investigating their root causes and implementing improvements based on those
findings are crucial in preventing future errors.

Patient Engangement and Empowerment.

Enganging patients in their own care and promoting shared decision in their own care and promoting
shared decision-making can improve safety by encouraging them to ask questions, discuss concerns and
actively participate in their treatment plans can help prevent errors.

Standardized Protocols and Guidelines.

Developing and implementing standardized protocols and guidelines for various clinical scenarios can
improve patient safety. These protocols must be evidence-based , regularly updated and followed
consistently.

Medication Safety Measures

Implementing computerized prescribing systems with built-in safety checks can help prevent medication
errors. This includes verifying patients allergies, drug interactions and proper dosing. Accurate
medication reconciliation during transitions of care is also important.

Enhanced Training and Education

Conntinuous education and training for healthcare professionals on best practices, new technologies and
safety protocols can significantly reduce medical errors. Emphasizing the importance of reporting and
learning from errors is also crucial.
Effective Communication
Promoting clear and open communication among healthcare providers, patients and their families is
crucial. This includes accurate patient information transfer during handoffs and the use of standardized
communication tools

Utilization of Technology
Utilizing technology such as electronic health records (EHRs), barcodes scanning systems and decision
support tools, can enhance patient safety. These tools can help reduce errors related to documentation,
ordering and administration of treatments.

REFERENCES
1. 1.Pharmacologyeeducation.org/resources/medicineerrors

2. 2.Schiff GD, Hasan O, Kim S, et al. Diagnostic Error in internal medicine. Analysis of 583
Physician-Reported Errors. Arch Int Med. 2009;165(20):1881-1887.

3. "Medication Error Definition".National coordinating Council of Medication Error Reporing and

Prevention. Retrieved July 17, 2023.

4. Kopec, D.;Tamang, S,;Levy,K,;eCKHARDT,r,;shagas,G.(2006). "The state of the art in the reduction

of medical errors". Studies in Health Technology and Informatics. 121: 126-37. PMID 17095810.
5. Pham,J.c.,J.L.,Hicks,R.W.,Shore,A.D.,Morlock,L.L.,Cheung,D.S,...& Pronovost,Pronovost,P.J.
(2011). National study on the frequency, types, causes and consequences of voluntarily
reporting emergency department medicarion errors