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Paramedic self-reported medication errors.

Gary M Vilke1, Stephen V Tornabene, Barbara Stepanski

  • 1San Diego County Division of Emergency Medical Services, Department of Emergency Medicine, University of California San Diego Medical Center, San Diego Children's Hospital, California 92103, USA. gmvilke@ucsd.edu

Prehospital Emergency Care
|December 16, 2006
PubMed
Summary
This summary is machine-generated.

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Nine percent of paramedics report medication errors, including dose and route mistakes. Many errors go unreported, highlighting the need for improved safeguards in prehospital care.

Area of Science:

  • Prehospital Care
  • Emergency Medical Services
  • Patient Safety

Background:

  • Medication administration errors are identified in prehospital settings through quality improvement reviews.
  • Errors encompass discrepancies in dose, medication, route, concentration, and treatment.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To assess the incidence and types of medication errors reported by paramedics.
  • To identify factors contributing to medication errors in the prehospital environment.
  • To evaluate the reporting of medication errors within the quality improvement process.

Main Methods:

  • A survey was administered to paramedics in San Diego County.
  • The survey instrument was developed based on prior literature and quality improvement data.
  • 352 surveys were returned, with respondents averaging 8.5 years of experience.

Related Experiment Videos

Main Results:

  • 9.1% of paramedics reported medication errors in the past 12 months.
  • Common errors included dose-related (63%), protocol (33%), wrong route (21%), and wrong medication (4%).
  • Contributing factors cited were failure to triple check, infrequent medication use, and dosage calculation errors; fatigue was not a factor.

Conclusions:

  • Approximately 9% of surveyed paramedics admitted to medication errors within the last year.
  • A significant portion (4%) of these errors were not reported through the established quality improvement channels.
  • Enhanced safety measures are necessary to reduce the frequency of prehospital medication errors.