Question

In lieu of the Covid-19 Pandemic, what are some aspects of the patient care environment that may give rise to medication errors? How can they be prevented?

Answer 1

Medication errors can be caused by health worker fatigue, overcrowding, staff shortages, poor training and the wrong information being given to patients, among other reasons. Any one of these, or a combination, can affect the prescribing, dispensing, consumption, and monitoring of medications, which can result in severe harm, disability and even death.

Most harm arises from systems failures in the way care is organized and coordinated, especially when multiple health providers are involved in a patient’s care.

An organizational culture that routinely implements best practices and that avoids blame when mistakes are made is the best environment for safe care. also preventive measures include proper patient allocation to staffs, establishing a chain of command/ authority, proper roation and assigning duties.