Medication Safety and Error Prevention: Advancing Quality Patient Care
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.67440/ahj.vi.2064Keywords:
Medication safety, medication errors, patient safety, error prevention, nurses, medication administration, high-alert medications, quality patient care, medication reconciliation, healthcare quality.Abstract
Medication safety is a fundamental component of patient safety and quality healthcare. Medicines provide substantial therapeutic benefits, but unsafe medication practices and medication errors can result in preventable patient harm, prolonged hospitalization, increased healthcare expenditure, disability and death. Medication errors may occur at any stage of the medication-use process, including prescribing, transcribing, dispensing, preparation, administration and monitoring. The World Health Organization (WHO) identifies medication-related harm as a major global patient-safety concern and estimates that the cost associated with medication errors is approximately US$42 billion annually. WHO's Medication Without Harm initiative emphasizes the need for coordinated action involving patients, healthcare professionals, medicines, and medication-use systems.
This review article examines the major causes and types of medication errors, high-risk situations, the role of nurses and other healthcare professionals, technological interventions, patient involvement, medication reconciliation, reporting and learning systems, and organizational strategies for preventing medication-related harm. Particular attention is given to high-alert medications, polypharmacy, transitions of care, look-alike/sound-alike medicines, communication failures, workload, interruptions and inadequate knowledge. Recent evidence indicates that nurse-led interventions, including educational programmes, workflow technologies, protocol-based interventions and electronic medication-management systems, can reduce medication administration errors, although effectiveness varies among individual interventions.
The review emphasizes that medication safety should not be viewed solely as an individual healthcare-worker responsibility. Effective prevention requires a systems-based approach combining professional education, standardized procedures, technology, multidisciplinary communication, patient engagement, incident reporting, safety culture and continuous quality improvement. Advancing medication safety through these integrated strategies can contribute significantly to safer care, improved clinical outcomes and higher quality of patient-centered healthcare.
