Medication Errors Found in 1 Out of 2 Surgeries

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Medication Errors Found in 1 Out of 2 Surgeries

October 29th, 2015

Awake Goy

Medication Errors Found in 1 Out of 2 Surgeries

October 29th, 2015

Via: Harvard:

The first study to measure the incidence of medication errors and adverse drug events during the perioperative period â€” immediately before, during and right after a surgical procedure â€” has found that some sort of mistake or adverse event occurred in every second operation and in 5 percent of observed drug administrations.

The study of more than 275 operations at Harvard-affiliated Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH), which will appear in Anesthesiology, also found that a third of the errors resulted in adverse drug events or harm to patients. The report is being published online to coincide with a presentation at the Anesthesiology 2015 annual meeting in San Diego, Calif., Oct. 24-28.

â€œWe found that just over one in 20 perioperative medication administrations resulted in a medication error or an adverse drug event,â€� said Karen C. Nanji of the MGH Department of Anaesthesia, Critical Care, and Pain Medicine, lead author of the report.

â€œPrior to our study, the literature on perioperative medication error rates was sparse and consisted largely of self-reported data, which we know under-represents true error rates. Now that we have a better idea of the actual rate and causes of the most common errors, we can focus on developing solutions to address the problems.

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