KPI of the Day – Healthcare: % Medication error rate
Definition
Measures the percentage of errors in the process of dispensing or administering medication to patients, by professionals from the medical industry, out of the total medication prescribed.
Purpose
To indicate the probability of adverse events due to medication errors, as this can have major negative effects on patient health, but also reputational and financial ones for the hospital and its staff.
Regular measurement and effective reporting systems encourage safe practices by determining and reducing the causes of such errors. Examining and evaluating medication errors can lead to generating strategies for error prevention.
Recommendations
Developments in modern clinical medication have resulted in plenty of dramatic health recoveries, but concurrently, prescription medicine is becoming more and more risky to write, due to the increasing variety of existing medicines.
A few factors associated with medication errors may stem from poor communication, drug name confusion, lack of staff knowledge, misinterpreted handwriting, and incorrect dosing. Several tips on successfully driving decreases in % Medication errors include:
- Educating healthcare providers;
- Implementing a risk assessment process that helps identify risk factors;
- Double-checking medication orders;
- Using medical administration records;
- Educating the patient during medication rounds;
- Using automated systems for order entries;
- Allocating sufficient time for treating each patient;
- Confronting and openly disclosing these errors as soon as they are discovered.
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