Get 20M+ Full-Text Papers For Less Than $1.50/day. Start a 14-Day Trial for You or Your Team.

Learn More →

Characteristics of medication errors with parenteral cytotoxic drugs

Characteristics of medication errors with parenteral cytotoxic drugs FYHR A. & AKSELSSON R. (2012) European Journal of Cancer Care21, 606–613 Characteristics of medication errors with parenteral cytotoxic drugs Errors involving cytotoxic drugs have the potential of being fatal and should therefore be prevented. The objective of this article is to identify the characteristics of medication errors involving parenteral cytotoxic drugs in Sweden. A total of 60 cases reported to the national error reporting systems from 1996 to 2008 were reviewed. Classification was made to identify cytotoxic drugs involved, type of error, where the error occurred, error detection mechanism, and consequences for the patient. The most commonly involved cytotoxic drugs were fluorouracil, carboplatin, cytarabine and doxorubicin. The platinum‐containing drugs often caused serious consequences for the patients. The most common error type were too high doses (45%) followed by wrong drug (30%). Twenty‐five of the medication errors (42%) occurred when doctors were prescribing. All of the preparations were delivered to the patient causing temporary or life‐threatening harm. Another 25 of the medication errors (42%) started with preparation at the pharmacies. The remaining 10 medication errors (16%) were due to errors during preparation by nurses (5/60) and administration by nurses to the wrong patient (5/60). It is of utmost importance to minimise the potential for errors in the prescribing stage. The identification of drugs and patients should also be improved. http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png European Journal of Cancer Care Wiley

Characteristics of medication errors with parenteral cytotoxic drugs

European Journal of Cancer Care , Volume 21 (5) – Sep 1, 2012

Loading next page...
 
/lp/wiley/characteristics-of-medication-errors-with-parenteral-cytotoxic-drugs-PJ41uMHqo9

References (22)

Publisher
Wiley
Copyright
© 2012 Blackwell Publishing Ltd
ISSN
0961-5423
eISSN
1365-2354
DOI
10.1111/j.1365-2354.2012.01331.x
pmid
22335508
Publisher site
See Article on Publisher Site

Abstract

FYHR A. & AKSELSSON R. (2012) European Journal of Cancer Care21, 606–613 Characteristics of medication errors with parenteral cytotoxic drugs Errors involving cytotoxic drugs have the potential of being fatal and should therefore be prevented. The objective of this article is to identify the characteristics of medication errors involving parenteral cytotoxic drugs in Sweden. A total of 60 cases reported to the national error reporting systems from 1996 to 2008 were reviewed. Classification was made to identify cytotoxic drugs involved, type of error, where the error occurred, error detection mechanism, and consequences for the patient. The most commonly involved cytotoxic drugs were fluorouracil, carboplatin, cytarabine and doxorubicin. The platinum‐containing drugs often caused serious consequences for the patients. The most common error type were too high doses (45%) followed by wrong drug (30%). Twenty‐five of the medication errors (42%) occurred when doctors were prescribing. All of the preparations were delivered to the patient causing temporary or life‐threatening harm. Another 25 of the medication errors (42%) started with preparation at the pharmacies. The remaining 10 medication errors (16%) were due to errors during preparation by nurses (5/60) and administration by nurses to the wrong patient (5/60). It is of utmost importance to minimise the potential for errors in the prescribing stage. The identification of drugs and patients should also be improved.

Journal

European Journal of Cancer CareWiley

Published: Sep 1, 2012

There are no references for this article.