Medication errors and strategies for their prevention

Medication errors occur every day causing injury to the patients and even deaths. The health care professionals are not fully aware of the damages done by medication errors in terms of patients' discomfort and economic burden. There is a need to provide information about medication errors to health care providers. This article reviews research done on the various aspects of medication errors. The research work done on prescribing errors, transcribing errors, dispensing errors, administration errors and discharged summaries errors have been examined. Eight strategies to reduce the occurrence of medication errors have been reviewed: (1) Electronic prescribing and computerized physician order entry (CPOE) with clinical decision support systems (CDSSs), (2) Bar Code, (3) Interventions to reduce medication errors, (4) Medication Error Reporting Systems (IVIERSs), (5) Alerts about medication errors, (6) Prevention of harm from high-alert drugs, (7) Smart Infusion Pumps and (8) Telemedicine or Telehealth or Telepharmacy. Statistical tests used in medication error studies have also been stated.