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Medication errors in prescription and administration in critically ill patients
Stefanie Suclupe1,2, Maria Jose Martinez-Zapata1,3,4, Jordi Mancebo5
1Iberoamerican Cochrane Centre, Barcelona, Spain.
Journal of Advanced Nursing
|February 8, 2020
Summary
Medication errors in intensive care units are frequent, affecting nearly half of prescriptions and over 70% of administrations. Addressing these errors is crucial for patient safety and quality nursing care.
Area of Science:
- Medical Science
- Nursing Practice
- Patient Safety
Background:
- Medication errors pose a significant risk to critically ill patients.
- Understanding the prevalence and contributing factors of these errors is essential for improving care quality.
Purpose of the Study:
- To determine the prevalence and magnitude of medication errors in critically ill adult patients.
- To investigate the association between medication errors and patients' sociodemographic/clinical characteristics and nurses' work conditions.
Main Methods:
- An observational, analytical, cross-sectional, and ambispective study was conducted.
- Data on prescription errors were collected retrospectively from medical records.
- Administration errors were identified through direct observation of nurses during drug administration between April and July 2015.
Main Results:
- A prevalence of 47.1% for prescription errors (most frequent: omission) and 73.5% for administration errors (most frequent: interruption) was found.
- Intensive care unit (ICU) stay was a risk factor for omission errors.
- ICU admission, nurses' morning shifts, and perceived workload were risk factors for administration interruptions.
Conclusions:
- Medication errors in both prescription and administration are frequent in the ICU.
- Timely error detection and fostering a medication safety culture are necessary to reduce errors.
- Preventable medication errors can lead to serious adverse events in vulnerable critically ill patients.
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