Medical errors happen more often than we realize they do; the numbers are staggering – according to information from the Institute of Medicine, between 44,000 and 98,000 deaths and around 1,000,000 injuries occur in the U.S every year due to medical errors. Most of them are preventable, especially prescription errors that result in the wrong medication or the wrong dosage being given to patients. Prescription errors happen for a variety of reasons, such pharmacist error, assistant error and oftentimes patient error. Physicians wanting to help others who are allowed to write prescriptions (like physician assistants and a few nurse practitioners) suggest the following ways to reduce all variety of errors by:

1. Taking extra care to write the prescriptions in a readable manner.
2. Using electronic prescription entry devices or preprinted prescriptions.
3. Writing prescriptions without using short forms, abbreviations or codes for the names of drugs so that pharmacist confusion or assumption does not lead to errors.
4. Setting policies in place where nurses or assistants check the prescription for errors before passing it on to the patient.
5. Ensuring that the patient has understood the prescription and knows when, how, and for how long to take the drugs.
6. Prescribing small doses of drugs that could be lethal if taken in large quantities and monitoring their usage.
7. Marking your name clearly on prescription pads that have the names of multiple physicians so that it is clearly visible and pharmacists know who to call when they need clarification.
8. Providing simplified dosage instructions understandable to the patient and pharmacist.
9. Using technology that allows you to send prescriptions directly to the pharmacist so that handwriting errors are prevented.
10. Adding additional information that is useful to the patient – like things to avoid doing while on certain drugs or why you have prescribed certain drugs. This prevents side-effects and misuse of drugs

A prescription is the most important aspect of medical care since it is based on the assessment of the patient’s condition and diagnosis of the illness, and is meant to effect the cure or provide therapeutic benefits. So when prescription errors occur, the very purpose of medical treatment is negated.

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This guest post is contributed by Rachel Davis, she writes on the topic of Radiology degree. She welcomes your comments  below.

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