The Effective Strategies to Avoid Medication Errors and Improving Reporting Systems.

Area of Science:

• Healthcare quality and safety
• Patient safety research
• Medication error analysis

Background:

• High rates of medication errors and deaths necessitate improved reporting systems.
• Effective medication error reporting is vital for reliable practice and patient safety.
• System improvements should focus on reducing future patient harm.

Purpose of the Study:

• To summarize medication error reporting culture.
• To review incidence reporting systems and effective reporting methods.
• To provide recommendations for enhancing medication error reporting systems.

Main Methods:

• Systematic review of electronic databases (PubMed, Ovid, EBSCOhost, EMBASE, ProQuest) from 1998 to 2020.
• Inclusion of 60 papers from an initial search of 684 articles.
• Data extraction and verification by multiple reviewers.

Main Results:

• Studies predominantly originated from the USA and UK, with limited international representation.
• Active, rather than passive, approaches are essential for detecting, measuring, and analyzing medication errors.
• Encouraging reporting involves staff engagement and root cause analysis; the NCC MERP taxonomy aids analysis.

Conclusions:

• Successful reporting programs must be safe for reporters, yield actionable recommendations, and be inclusive.
• Health organizations require robust reporting environments to improve medication use processes.
• Implementing effective changes based on error reports is key to advancing safer practices.