Analyzing Health Care Challenges- A Research-Based Approach to Problem Solving
Introduction
A medication error results from single or multiple failures in the treatment process. Such a failure can compromise the safety of the medication and the patient’s health. Additionally, medication errors can lead to practice issues for the prescriber and their health organization. This paper analyzes medication errors are an issue of concern in health care. The analysis identifies the elements of medication errors, explores the context in which medical errors occur, why and how they occur, and the impacts of medication errors on the safety of the patient and practice of the prescriber and related health organizations. The paper will also consider some approaches to reduce and prevent medication errors, propose one viable solution, analyze its ethical implications, and then develop an implementation plan for the proposed solution.
Elements of the Problem/Issue
Medication Errors as a Health Care Issue
Based on research on medical incident rates within and outside clinical settings, errors related to medications have a higher prevalence than any other medical errors. According to a study and healthcare statistics published on the My Medical Score website (mymedicalscore.com, 2020), medical errors cause over 161,000 deaths per year across the US. Approximately 9,000 patient deaths are reported annually in the US due to medication errors. Further, care for patients who are victims of medication errors and money lost due to such errors is over $40 billion per year (mymedicalscore.com, 2020). Consequently, medication errors are critical healthcare issues that need to be addressed, and solutions need to be developed and implemented. Medication errors occur within hospital settings and outside with connected causes of the errors. However, all medication errors that occur within and outside hospital settings can be prevented.
Occurrence of Medication Errors
Various factors are responsible for the occurrence of medication errors. According to Da Silva and Krishnamurthy (2016), medication errors occur at different levels in the medication use process, either during prescription, initial pharmacy dispensation, administration during hospitalization, and at the subsequent outpatient follow-up level. All these levels are directly affected by medication elements such as drug information, patient information, communication across all those involved in prescription and administration, manufacturing and drug labeling, medication storage, prescriber competency, patient medication knowledge, environmental factors, and the quality of the medication process influence the process of medication administration and use. Mistakes and failures in either of these elements can lead to imminent medication errors. Information about the medication, the patient’s understanding of the information, and communication between various medical professionals and the patient are the most influencing factors of medication errors.
A study by Manias (2018) argued that medication errors resulted from breakdowns in communication, especially in interdisciplinary collaborations. Lack of effective and efficient communication creates a disconnection between health professionals in clinical practice and can lead to adverse service outcomes, including medication errors. Another major element of medication-related communication is the omission or lack of sufficient information, such as a lack of patient information, such as age, medical history, and disease history, to make an informed prescription. An example of the relationship between communication, patient and drug information, and medication errors in interdisciplinary collaborations can be identified in a case where the clerk records the wrong age of a patient, forwards the information to a physician who carries out diagnostic tests and records incomplete information then forwards that to the nurse who further propagates the errors by only prescribing drugs for the diagnosis made. If the drugs are administered based on age, the pharmacist will give the wrong dosage. The pharmacist may also fail to explain the medications to the patient and note the dosage in illegible handwriting.
Analysis
Medication errors can be described as preventable inappropriate use of medications. Health issues and situations within populations are growing complex as new diseases emerge. For example, the changing population demographics, such as an aging population with complex and chronic illnesses, push most global populations to be over-dependent on medications. As the population demographics change and new diseases are discovered, newer medications are developing. Today, more and more drugs are prescribed globally by primary care healthcare providers. However, increased use of medications increases the threat of errors in manufacturing, prescription, administration, and use of medications. In an era when healthcare delivery systems focus on delivering quality patient-centered care, it is essential for healthcare professionals to analyze medication errors to identify their impact on patient safety and health practice and plan solutions to counter such errors.
Impact of Medication Errors on Patient Safety
Patients are the most impacted by medication errors. The effects of medication errors on patients range from non-noticeable outcomes to severe patient injury and, in some cases, result in death. Some medication errors cause side effects that can be temporary, such as body rash and itching, to mild conditions, and in extreme cases, cause permanent damage such as disfigurement of body parts or loss of senses. Such cases can also lead to the patient getting paralyzed. The instances of medication errors that lead to death can devastate the family. Additionally, hospitalization cases due to medication errors create an unnecessary financial burden on the patient and their family.
Impact of Medication Errors on Health Practice
Most medication errors have a direct impact on patients and their families. However, such errors impact the related care providers and the health practice in general. According to Robertson & Long (2018), care providers are prone to experiencing various adverse emotions such as guilt, shame, anxiety, fear, and, in some cases, depression due to medication errors they have made. This affects their mental health and has a detrimental impact on their ability to deliver quality health services. Another effect of medication errors is how they affect health practices. For example, people may develop negative attitudes such as mistrust, fear, or disgust towards a particular service, provider, or medication. Medication errors may also lead to legal disputes and termination of licensing, affecting the overall healthcare practice of the individual provider or health organization.
Considering Options
The causes of medication errors within hospital settings differ from those outside the hospital settings. Preventing and reducing the prevalence of medication errors and associated risks in both settings requires universal and broad approaches specific to each setting. The following solutions can be adopted to help reduce and prevent medication errors:
Offering fresher courses to medical specialists,
Providing critical thinking skills as a course for medical students,
Reviewing all prescriptions before administering any doses,
Involving the patient in the prescription process
Inquiring from others where a specific procedure is not well understood
Developing communication skills at all levels of the medication use process
Solution
Communication and the collection and sharing of information, as earlier identified, are the leading elements that affect the accuracy and efficiency of medication production, prescription, administration, and use. Therefore, the best solution would be to focus on streamlining communication in interdisciplinary teams. Therefore, the proposed solution based on the analysis of medication errors is adopting a medication management and patient information system. The system can be an extension of the existing electronic health records (EHR) system. However, the medication management and patient information system will collect more detailed information on the medications prescribed, the prescriber, and the administration details of the patient. The patients will access their profile and update on medication usage, providing intimate details of when and where the particular dose was taken, their state of health, and emotions. Prescribers will have access to prescriptions directly from the system. All administered drugs will need to be scanned for the system to confirm whether that is the right medication and the right dosage for the right patient.
Ethical Implications
The huge ethical concern of the proposed medication management and patient information system is data privacy. As the system will seek to collect personal and intimate details of the patient based on drug use, such a system may pose a considerable risk to the privacy and safety of the patient if compromised.
Implementation
Adopting the new medication management and patient information system will require making some changes to the mode of operations within the facility and other stakeholders. A good change management model will need to be developed based on the needs of each stakeholder. The implementation process will also involve training the users on the new system and creating awareness of the same. The implementation process will abide by the ethical norms of respect for autonomy. Respect for autonomy and ethical principles allows patients to make autonomous decisions and actions. This means that the system will be open, secure, and able to protect confidential information while the users respect the privacy of others, and the doctors will require patient consent to apply interventions.
Conclusion
The accuracy of medical care and the safety of medication determine the outcome of a treatment outcome. All healthcare delivery systems are focused on providing safe and quality care for the population. However, due to the fallibility of human prescribers, unintentional medication errors are more likely to remain a part of all healthcare delivery systems. Despite this, health providers and prescribers need to adopt approaches that significantly reduce medication errors and improve the quality and safety of medications and the medication use process.
References
Da Silva, B. A., & Krishnamurthy, M. (2016). The alarming reality of medication error: a patient case and review of Pennsylvania and National data. Journal of Community Hospital Internal Medicine Perspectives, 6(4), 31758.
Jessurun, J., Hunfeld, N., Roo, M., Onzenoort, H., Rosmalen, J., Dijk, M., & Bemt, P. (2022). Prevalence and determinants of medication administration errors in clinical wards: A two‐centre prospective observational study. Journal of Clinical Nursing. https://doi.org/10.1111/jocn.16215
Manias, E. (2018). Effects of interdisciplinary collaboration in hospitals on medication errors: an integrative review. Expert opinion on drug safety, 17(3), 259-275.
mymedicalscore.com. (2022). Medical Error Statistics [2020]: Deaths/Year & Malpractice Rates. My Medical Score. Retrieved 16 April 2022, from https://mymedicalscore.com/medical-error-statistics/.
Robertson, J. J., & Long, B. (2018). Suffering in silence: medical error and its impact on health care providers. The Journal of Emergency Medicine, 54(4), 402-409.
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Question 
Thank you for all you do. This is my final paper for this class. Please utilize all areas necessary to get full points. If you recall, the topic we used for my previous paper was Medication errors. That is kind of the same topic you will be working on for this final paper.
Analyzing Health Care Challenges- A Research-Based Approach to Problem Solving
Write a 4-6 page analysis of a current problem or issue in health care, including a proposed solution and possible ethical implications.
Introduction
In your healthcare career, you will face many problems that demand a solution. By using research skills, you can learn what others are doing and saying about similar problems. Then, you can analyze the problem and the people and systems it affects. You can also examine potential solutions and their ramifications. This assessment allows you to practice this approach with a real-world problem.