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Risks Of Medication Errors For Patients And Staff Essay

Barcode Scanning

In a large metropolitan hospital, there have been multiple instances where patients received incorrect medications due to barcode scanning errors. The barcode system is meant to help nurses make certain that the right patient receives the right medication at the right dose and time. However, it has been malfunctioning intermittently, raising the risk for potential medication errors.

Background

Over the past six months, there have been 15 reported instances of barcode scanning errors. In three of these cases, patients received the wrong medication, though no severe adverse reactions were reported. In the remaining cases, the error was caught in time by healthcare providers paying close attention.

The Joint Commission's National Patient Safety Goals include the accurate identification of patients and the safe use of medications (Gosselin et al., 2019). The barcode scanning system is a tool to help achieve these goals. A malfunctioning system risks compromising these standards and putting patients at risk. Therefore, it needs to be addressed.

Assessment

The impact of the safety concern affects patients, staff, and the organization as a whole. Patients are at risk of receiving the wrong medication, potential adverse reactions, prolonged hospital stays, or even death if the error is a major one (Sutton et al., 2020). As a result, staff morale may weaken, or staff may lose trust in the system, prompting them to seek workarounds or bypassing the system altogether. This could in turn increase the workload and...

…implementation of the new system.

The current care delivery model of the hospital is a team-based care model, where teams work together to provide patient care. The new barcode system would enhance the team-based care model by ensuring that all members of the team have accurate and timely information about medications. It would also foster trust among team members, knowing that the system supports safe medication administration.

In conclusion, the barcode scanning errors issue is one that needs to be addressed for the sake of patient safety, staff trust, and the hospital's reputation. A new and reliable barcode scanning system, implemented with the involvement of all stakeholders, can help to reduce medication errors and improve the quality of care given…

Sources used in this document:

References

Gosselin, R. C., Roberts, A. J., & Dager, W. E. (2019). The joint commission national patientsafety goals (NPSG) directing anticoagulation safety in the United States. Annals of Blood, 4.

Sutton, R. T., Pincock, D., Baumgart, D. C., Sadowski, D. C., Fedorak, R. N., & Kroeker, K. I.

(2020). An overview of clinical decision support systems: benefits, risks, and strategies for success. NPJ digital medicine, 3(1), 17.

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