Drug Safety

Question 1

How dangerous is health care?

Answer 1

1 death per 1000 encounters

Question 2

How much do ADR’s on prescription errors cost the NHS?

Answer 2

£1.1bn/year

Question 3

Which patients are most at risk of prescribing errors or ADR’s?

Answer 3

• Surgical patients
• Those with complex conditions
• Patients in Emergency room
• Patients looked after by inexperienced doctors
• Older patients

Question 4

What factors could increase the rate of medication errors?

Answer 4

• Rapid influx of patients
• New drug developments
• Increasing complexity of medical care
• Increased specialisation
• Increased use of medicines
• Increase in sicker and older patients

Question 5

What are the individual factors that can lead to medication incidents?

Answer 5

1) Fatigue
2) Hunger
3) Concentration
4) Stress
5) Distraction
6) Lack of training
7) Lack of access to information

Question 6

In what stages of providing pharmacological agents do most errors occur?

Answer 6

1st - Prescribing

2nd - Administering

3rd - Dispensing

4th - Transcribing

Question 7

What are the most common prescribing errors?

Answer 7

1 - Wrong drug

2 - Wrong dose

3 - Inappropriate units

4 - Poor/illegible prescriptions

5 - Failure to take account of drug interactions

6 - Omission

7 - Wrong route

8 - Calculation errors

Question 8

What are the most important aspects of patient information to consider before prescribing?

Answer 8

1 - Age

2 - Weight

3 - Renal & Hepatic function

4 - Concurrent diseases

5 - Lab test results

6 - Concurrent medications

7 - Allergies

8 - Pregnancy

9 - Medical/surgical/Family History

Question 9

How can medication errors be prevented?

Answer 9

The 5 R’s

1 - Right Patient

2 - Right Drug

3 - Right Dose

4 - Right Route

5 - Right Time

Question 10

Can abbreviations be used when prescribing?

Answer 10

No

Question 11

Which unit in particular should not be abbreviated?

Answer 11

Microgram (ug)