Government Healthcare Policy, Business and Technology

State finds hundreds of medication errors linked to healthcare technology

Healthcare IT News: Exactly 889 medication error reports submitted to the Pennsylvania Patient Safety Authority between Jan. 1 and June 30, 2016, listed healthcare information technology as a factor contributing to the error event, according to a new report by the state.

The three most commonly reported event types were dose omission, wrong dose/overdosage, and extra dose, the report found. The most common HIT systems implicated in the events were the computerized prescriber order entry system, the pharmacy system, and the electronic medication administration record, the report said.

To identify and prevent errors attributed to HIT, healthcare organizations should encourage frontline staff to report errors or near-miss errors due to HIT so the events can be analyzed and systems improved, wrote the report authors.

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