The challenge of medication errors in the emergency department setting

Abstract

Medication errors (MEs) are considered the most common medical errors and as one of the major challenges threatening the health system, which can be also reduced. MEs threaten patients' safety and may increase the length of hospital stay, lead to unexpected complications, mortality and side costs. In 2017, the World Health Organization launched Medication without Harm to reduce severe avoidable medication-related damage by 50%, globally in the next 5 years. Emergency Departments (EDs) are stressful care environments which making EDs more prone to MEs. Therefore, EDs need to be seriously considered to reduce MEs and increase patients' safety. In this regard, it is of great significance to know about the most common stage of error in pharmacotherapy, the most common type of medication error and the most common causes of MEs in the emergency department practice setting. in conclusion, the most common types of MEs in EDs include drug omission error, wrong dose and strong infusion rate. In addition, the administration and prescribing are the most common stages of MEs in EDs. Also, the most common causes of MEs in EDs in Iran include nursing shortage (fatigue) and poor medication knowledge .