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 [MERSs], [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