Week 3 Discussion
Annual pharmacy drug cost has increased from $10,300,000 to $16,800,000 in the past five years. The hospital is experiencing an increase in drug cost even though actual drug usage has remained stable.
Along with the increase in drug cost, drug related errors have also increased. Patient safety has become an even more serious issue. As you know, patient safety is the number one item on the national health care agenda for the next several years.
At the hospital the number of dispensing errors has increased by two percent during the past twelve months. The registered nurses who are administering the drugs have discovered many of the dispensing errors; however, the ones not discovered resulted in patients getting the wrong drug, wrong dosage, and/or the wrong frequency. When the overall drug error rate was analyzed, it was found that dispensing errors in the pharmacy were the number one cause. The overall drug error rate had increased from three percent to five percent.
Fortunately most of the dispensing errors were discovered before the medications were administered to the patients. When the incorrect drugs were administered, it resulted in adverse effects in three cases. One patient received the right medication but the wrong dosage because the medication label was incorrect. This patient had to be admitted overnight to the Intensive Care Unit for intense cardiac and respiratory monitoring. The patient stayed in ICU for approximately twenty-four hours. Another patient received the wrong medication on the day of planned discharge and had to remain in the hospital for an additional day, though only for observation. In the third case, the patient had reported that he was allergic to a certain category of drugs, but nonetheless received a drug of that type. He had an adverse reaction–a rash–which delayed his discharge by one day.
On the basis of your understanding of the above case study, express your views on the following:
- What measures should be adopted to reduce the overall drug error rate in the hospital?
- What special benefits should be given to the patients who have suffered due to negligence by the hospital staff for wrong drug administration and other reasons?
- In your opinion, should the hospital staff who were responsible for the dispensing errors be held personally liable for the errors? Why or why not?
Use the following resources as well as your Textbook for this assignment.
- Ellsworth, M. A., M.D., Aakre, C. A., M.D., Dziadzko, Mikhail,M.D., PhD., Peters, S. G., M.D., Pickering, Brian W,M.B., B.Ch, & Herasevich, Vitaly,M.D., PhD. (2016). Early computerization of patient care at mayo clinic. Mayo Clinic Proceedings, 91(7), E93-E101. doi:http://dx.doi.org.southuniversity.libproxy.edmc.edu/10.1016/j.mayocp.2016.04
- Lan, H., Thongprayoon, C., Ahmed, A., Herasevich, V., Sampathkumar, P., Gajic, O., & O’Horo, J. C. (2015). Automating quality metrics in the era of electronic medical records: Digital signatures for ventilator bundle compliance. BioMed Research International, 2015, 1-6. doi:10.1155/2015/396508
To support your work, use your course and textbook readings and also use the South University Online Library. As in all assignments, cite your sources in your work and provide references for the citations in APA format.
Your initial posting should be addressed at 150-300 words. Submit your document to this Discussion Area by the due date assigned. Be sure to cite your sources using APA format.
Sample Answer
Discussion
Drug-related errors are among the major issues experienced in various healthcare organizations. This issue affects the patients. For instance, drug errors undermine patient safety. In some cases, this issue can cause a new health condition that can be temporary or permanent, like skin disfigurement and rashes (Assiri et al., 2018). Besides, drug errors can lead to significant impacts, including severe patient injury that can increase the risk of hospitalization or even cause death. Moreover, this issue can affect healthcare organizations by leading to high drug costs and causing malpractice cases (Assiri et al., 2018). Therefore, healthcare organizations need to implement various measures to reduce the overall drug error.
One of the measures a healthcare organization can implement to prevent dispensing errors includes ensuring proper documentation of medication. This includes adequate medication classification, comprehensible recording, and proper documentation of administered medication. This can help prevent the prescription of expired or wrong drugs (Ellsworth et al., 2016). Transcription errors such as omissions contribute to a significant number of dispensing errors. Secondly, the hospital should implement necessary mechanisms like use of electronic health records to achieve medication reconciliation when patients are shifted from one department to another with the hospital or a different healthcare institution (Lan et al., 2015). This will help ensure healthcare professionals evaluate and confirm each medication to ensure the accurate dosage, prescription, route, and patient. Thirdly, hospital staff such as pharmacists should be encouraged to confirm that the prescription is correct and complete (Tariq et al., 2020). Fourthly, the hospital should provide adequate training to its healthcare professionals regarding its medication administration policies, rules, and guidelines. With this information, the healthcare professionals will be able to follow and comply with the healthcare facility’s medication policy, which comprises crucial information about the institution’s practices on mediation administration, ordering, and documentation.
Some medication errors occur due to negligence by the hospital staff. In such a scenario, the patient may experience various damages, including suffering, constant pain, disability, and considerable loss of income. A patient experiencing such injuries due to negligence by the hospital staff should be given various special benefits. One of them includes the freedom to file a malpractice case to sue the hospital staff liable for the identified damages. This allows the patient to seek justice. The second benefit includes compensation for the damages incurred. The hospital staff responsible for the drug error or any other risk that led to the patient’s injuries should compensate the patient. For instance, the healthcare professional should pay the patient the lost income due to the time lost off work due to the drug error. Also, the hospital staff should compensate the patient for the medical expenses incurred in treating or managing the injuries, the amount of money the patient spent to attend medical appointments and treatment, the cost of caregiving services the patient is receiving, and future losses (Tariq et al., 2020).
In my opinion, the hospital staff responsible for the dispensing errors should be held personally liable. This is because the hospital staff owed the duty, the healthcare professional breached the responsibility, and the breach of duty resulted in an injury, which made the patient experience considerable damage. Besides, the hospital should be held liable for the drug error (s) due to lack of effective medication administration policies, regulations, and guidelines, which provide vital information regarding the institution’s practices on mediation ordering, administration, and documentation.
