Medication Errors In Hospitalized Adults

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Prevention of Medication Errors in Hospitalized Adults
The National Coordinating Council for Medication Error Reporting and Prevention (NCCMERP) describes a medication error as any avertible incident that may contribute to unsuitable treatment or inappropriate patient handling while the medication is within the control of a health care attendant, a patient, or any consumer (NCCMERP, n.d.). The errors are mostly associated with medical practices by health care personnel, health care processes and systems, medical care products through labeling, packaging, naming, issuing, and administration (NCCMERP, n.d.). The proper understanding of this subject, its impact, and the appropriate remedies is crucial to nursing as a discipline since nurses are the main caregivers in hospitals and other health facilities.
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This is not only dumbfounding, but also a very disturbing reality. Medical mistakes claim the lives of approximately 400,000 people annually, translating to more than a thousand people daily. In addition to costing the American taxpayers a colossal amount of one trillion U.S. dollars annually, this vice results in tremendous human suffering and loss of life. The death toll in not te only cause of distress. It is also estimated that about 10,000 serious complications arise from medical mistakes daily. These numbers are inconceivable. The interesting bit, however, is that the field of medicine devotes a colossal amount of funds to information technology, but they are yet to realize improvement in patient safety that is under threat due to medication errors (McCann,