Hospital ICU's: Wrong Drug...Wrong Dose...Wrong Route

Dan Frith

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What am I talking about? A newly released (multinational) report from the British Medical Journal which concludes medication errors are common in intensive care units and may result in permanent harm or death.

The findings include:

1. The total prevalence of medication errors at the administration stage in intensive care units was found to be 74.5 errors per 100 patient days.

2. Errors were most frequently associated with the wrong time of administration (386) followed by missed medication (259), wrong dose (118), wrong drug (61), and wrong route (37).

3. Workload, stress, and fatigue were reported as the most frequent contributing factors to medication errors (32%). Other contributing factors included changes in drug names; written or oral miscommunication; lack of experience, knowledge, or supervision; violation of protocol; shift change; and equipment failure. More than half of the errors (53%) that resulted in permanent harm or death occurred in situations in which trainees were involved.

Wonder how the ICU units in following Southwest Virginia hospitals perform?

Carilion Roanoke Memorial Hospital, Lewis-Gale Hospital, Memorial Hospital of Martinsville and Henry County, Danville Regional Medical Center, Stonewall Jackson Hospital, Carilion New River Valley Hospital, Montgomery Regional Hospital, Wellmont Bristol Regional Hospital, Carilion Giles Memorial Hospital, Alleghany Regional Hospital, Carilion Franklin Memorial Hospital, and Tazewell Community Hospital