Common Issues Causing Hospital Prescription Errors

Doctors at the Albany Medical Center did a study of more than 2,000 near miss prescription errors.  Crystal Phend wrote an article about this study for MedPage Today, which takes a more in depth look at the statistics found during this study.  I simply want to describe the common types of Prescription error that were found in this study, and give you some tips on how to prevent yourself from becoming a victim.

• Sound alike drug names 
  • Because of the massive amounts of different drugs be sure to know the spelling of the drug prescribed to you so you can double check.
• Unfamiliarity with less commonly prescribed drugs.
  • Request that you are prescribed well known drugs if at all possible.
• Wrong Dosage - over/under or duplication
  • Have your doctor write down legibly what dosage they prescribed to you, and make sure that you are being administered the proper amount.

Hopefully this study will improve the current error reduction strategies in place and will reduce the amount of Hospital medication mistakes being made.  You can help yourself by becoming  educated on what caregivers are putting into your body.