Medication Errors.

 
 Most health care professionals have learned the “five right” of safe medication use:

1. The right patient
2. The right drug
3. The right time
4. The right dose
5. The right route of administration                                                                                                                               

Problems arise due to negligence or insufficient knowledge about putting the five rights into practice leading to “medication errors”. These can be minor, life threatening, dangerous or death causing.
Following errors are seen in daily practice:
1.       Prescribing error:
This is the type of error or mistake is the one caused by incorrect drug selections, dose, dosage form, quantity, route, concentration, rate of administration, instructions, illegible prescriptions or medication orders.
2.       Omission error:
This type of error is caused by total lack of responsibility of a pharmacist that is failure to administer an ordered dose to a patient before the next scheduled dose.
3.       Wrong time error:
This type of error is the one which is caused when a pharmacist administer a medication outside a predefined time interval from its scheduled administered time.
4.       Unauthorized drug error:
This is the mistake caused when a pharmacist administer medication to the patient from an illegal prescriber for the patients.
5.       Improper dose error:
This error occurs when a patient have been administered such a dose that is greater than or less than the amount mentioned by the prescriber or administration of duplicate doses.
6.       Wrong dosage form error:
This is due to any miscommunication or careless behavior of a pharmacist or nurse that is giving the patient a different dosage form than the one prescribed.
7.       Wrong drug preparation error:
This is the error completely caused by pharmacists’ lack of attention or information like if he formulates an incorrect drug product or it is degraded before administration.
8.       Wrong administration technique  error:
This is the problem caused by inappropriate procedure or improper technique in the administration of a drug.
9.       Deteriorated drug error:
This is the drug error caused by administration of a drug that has expired or physical or chemical dosage form integrity. Error occurs due to the irresponsible behavior of medical staff that causes dangerous effects.
10.   Monitoring error:
This is the mistake on part of a pharmacist in reviewing lab or clinical data for the assessment of condition of the patient to check whether he/she is improving or not. A Pharmacist must be much aware of these things.

Conclusion:
So to avoid these errors and further more complications which can be arise because of these, the pharmacist or any medical staff should devote him/her to this life saving profession. He/she should have to gain knowledge to its highest point and should achieve a level equal to that of a doctor in a society. It is also vital that the pharmacist devote careful attention to dispensing process and gain proper knowledge about all the methods to ensure that errors are not introduced at that point in the medication process. If needed a pharmacist should cooperate and seek help with a prescriber to maintain proper chain of treatments of patients through right medicines by right way.