7 Common Medication Prescribing Errors and How to Address Them

Medication prescribing errors are far more common than most patients would like to think. Depending on the setting, average rates of improper medicine orders vary from 4.9 to 8.9 percent. While most of these errors pose little to no risk to the patient, some prescribing errors can cause severe harm, and most lead to negative economic consequences for hospitals and private practices. Read on to find out about seven of the most common prescribing errors and how to address them to improve the situation.

1. Compounding Errors

Patients sometimes require medications in doses or forms that are not readily available. Pharmacists can alter existing forms of prescription drugs using a process known as compounding, but errors are common. The best way to avoid human error during this process is for pharmacies to invest in automated compounding systems.

2. Omitted or Delayed Prescriptions

Of those prescribing errors that cause serious harm or unnecessary death, almost half involve omitted or delayed prescriptions for necessary medications. More often than not, the problem occurs when patients are discharged from the hospital. The best solution is for hospitals to implement procedures for reviewing discharge summaries and ensuring that pharmacists receive notice that the patient has received a critical prescription.

3. Improper Prescription of Opioid Analgesics

Opioids like morphine, codeine, oxycodone, fentanyl, and others all pose the risk of causing not just physical dependencies but also severe side effects and overdoses. Prescribing doctors must be careful to dose opioids appropriately when writing prescriptions and ensuring the quantities issued will not allow patients to stockpile the medicines at home, which can increase the risk of overdose.

4. Overprescription of NSAID Drugs

While NSAIDs do not pose the same risks of dependency associated with opioid analgesics, they can still be dangerous if prescribed improperly. Prescribing physicians should avoid prescribing them to high-risk populations such as the elderly whenever possible and should recommend only the lowest effective doses for use over a short duration. Patients who require long-term use of NSAIDs should be monitored for gastrointestinal problems.

5. Failure to Perform Regular Blood Test Monitoring

Many medications require therapeutic drug monitoring, a form of blood test that helps to ensure a consistent concentration of the drugs in patients’ bloodstreams. It’s important for prescribing physicians to document a drug-monitoring plan and ensure the medications are not reauthorised unless the patient complies with blood test monitoring.

6. Known Medication Allergies

Every year, patients who have documented medication allergies still suffer preventable adverse reactions. Avoiding these adverse events would be a simple matter of checking the patient’s allergy status before prescribing, dispensing, or administering a new medication, so there are few excuses for prescribing known allergens.

7. Drug Interactions

Like medication allergies, patients’ current prescriptions are documented in their medical records, yet thousands of people die from adverse drug reactions each year. Physicians should check the patient’s medication list before prescribing a new drug to check for potential adverse reactions. Electronic prescribing systems can make it easier to identify drug interactions by flagging possible problems.

Final Thoughts

Most prescribing errors can be avoided. Physicians, pharmacists, and other healthcare providers must all work together to ensure that their patients do not receive improper prescriptions that could place them in harm’s way. Having access to the right tools and technologies can also make the process much easier and help to eliminate human error.