Medication errors. A bitter pill

According to the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, over 770,000 hospitalized Americans are injured or die each year from adverse drug events. The scope of the problem is now recognized by governmental and professional agencies. Traditionally, the legal and healthcare systems have focused on identifying incompetent and poorly performing healthcare providers as the cause of patient injury instead of systematically making the system safer. The solution to this problem lies in understanding how and why medication errors occur and identifying what can be done to prevent them. This article will identify the factors that contribute to adverse medication events in healthcare and discuss current initiatives to prevent errors. The role of nursing in improving medication administration and reducing adverse events will be detailed.