Medication Errors in Critical Care Units in a Tertiary Hospital

Medication errors in critical care are frequent, serious, and predictable. Critically ill patients are prescribed, twice as many medications, as patients outside of the intensive care unit (ICU) and nearly all of them suffer, a potentially life-threatening error at some point during their hospitalization. Today, in the health care profession, all types of medication errors including missed dose, wrong dosage forms, wrong time interval, wrong route, etc., are a big deal, for quality patient care. Problems related to medications, are common in the healthcare profession, and are responsible for significant morbidity, mortality, and cost. Several recent studies have demonstrated that patients frequently have difficulty in reading and understanding medication labels. According to the Institute of Medicine report, “Preventing Medication Errors”, cited poor labeling as a top most cause of medication errors in the USA. Evidence suggests that specific content and format of prescription drug labels, facilitate a better communication to minimize apprehension by patients regarding medication errors.

Although majority of these errors are without any serious adverse outcome but some of them are associated with increased morbidity and mortality leading to prolonged hospital stay, high cost of treatment and potential for litigation.

The aim of this study was undertaken to know the basic points of medication errors in the ICU set up, to identify risk factors for medication errors, and suggest strategies to prevent errors and manage their consequences.