Health Care Policy and Procedure Development. Medication Errors in Hospitals.

Medication Errors in Hospitals.
Student’s Name:
Student’s Number:
Institution:
Memo.
The leading causes of avoidable hospital admissions and prolonged hospital stay in the United States healthcare system are age and deprivation, long distance to the hospital, ethnicity, rurality, and many others. However, one of the most significant causes is medication errors. In most of the healthcare facilities in the country, most medication errors occur due to weak and ineffective communication between the patient and the healthcare personnel and also lack of competency among the employees (Louet, Lebeller & Thomas, 2018). Nonetheless, the phenomenon is exceptionally avoidable, and it can be eliminated by handling the errors promptly. Effects of medication errors and the issue itself can be elevated by the attendance of staff and the transfer of patients from one medical environment to the other.
There should be adequate guidelines that can be used to sufficiently address the issue. Therefore, this paper seeks to outline an effective policy and a procedure for reporting medication errors to curb the problem before its impacts magnify. The policy was devised off the notion that most of the mistakes are mostly caused by inadequate and improper reporting techniques and fear among healthcare practitioners (Louet, Lebeller & Thomas, 2018). This can elicit a hazard on patient's safety, and that is why it would be pertinent if the staff and the whole body of caregivers adopted the policy and the procedure to prevent medication errors.
Policy and Procedure for Reporting Medical Errors.
Date of Effect:
The motive of the Policy.
The purpose of the policy is to summarize and describe the procedures for reporting cases of medication errors in the transitional care facility to establish authentic and proper use of medications.
The Policy.
1 The allocation and administration of all forms of medication shall be following the policies of the hospital, the requirements of the pharmacy, and patient rights.
2 Individuals are obliged to report all medication errors and unexpected situations using the medication error notification form.
3 In an event where the patient has experienced the effects of the error, the person in charge shall report the matter to the licensed independent caregiver, urgently. Also, all the requirements for action shall be recorded in the medical document.
Definition of Terms.
1 Medication Error.
2 Medication Record.
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