Appropriate Medication Errors

Medication errors are preventable event that may cause or lead to inappropriate medication use or harm to a patient, according to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA, 2015). The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention states that there are over 700,000 visits to hospital emergency as an injury result from the use of a medication (CDC, 2015). The CDC goes on to say that the number of adverse drug events is likely to increase due to the development of new medications, aging population, increase the use of medication, increase coverage for medication, and the discovery of new uses for medication (CDC, 2012). The FDA conducted a study from 1993 to 1998 on the most common medication errors which resulted that 41% of medication errors were due to giving an improper dose of medicine (Stoppler, 2014). 16% of errors were from giving the wrong drug and using the wrong route (Stoppler, 2014). I conducted and interview with Commander Robert Wade Griffith, RPH. Commander Griffith is with
While filling prescription’s if the pharmacy department knows an error occurs the bottle is labeled as an error and that it was not dispensed (Griffth, 2016). If medication has been dispensed and the pharmacy is notified the medication is confiscated and a medication error report is completed. Each and every error is reported to the pharmacy and therapeutics department within the Bureau of prisons. This committee meets quarterly to discuss the errors and performs quality assurance. During this meeting corrective action plans are discussed and implemented. Commander Griffith goes on to state that if there are similar medications within the pharmacy the items are separated to limit any confusion (Griffth, 2016). One example he gave was triamcinolone cream and ointment are kept into different areas to ensure a mistake in dispensing does not occur (Griffth,