Medication errors in hospitals: Exploring medication safety through incident reports and observation of practice

Abstract

Patient received a tenfold overdose with chemotherapy while in hospital’ was a recent headline in a Norwegian national newspaper, unfortunately not an isolated event. The procedure, treatment or medication that is supposed to make a patient feel better, can at times cause patient harm. Medication errors are one of the most common incidents in healthcare and are associated with considerable patient harm. Learning from previous errors can aid in designing preventive measures. One such measure is barcode medication administration, using scanning of barcodes on medicines and patients’ wristband to verify the correct medication administration. Despite implementing measures to improve safety, it is difficult to know if anticipated improvements are occurring, since their use is not routinely measured. This thesis found that a substantial number of patients were harmed by preventable events. The thesis also provided new knowledge about the role of technology in improving medication safety. Furthermore, the thesis proposes effective, systemic measures to improve medication safety in hospitals.