Medication error

How it is used

Among the most frequently reported incidents in hospitals. Typical types are wrong drug, wrong dose, wrong patient, wrong time and wrong route. Managers reduce medication errors with electronic prescribing, barcode scanning and double checks for high-risk drugs.

Example sentences

1. Most medication errors on the ward happened during the busy evening drug round.

2. Barcode scanning has cut medication errors by more than a third.

Common collocations

• report a medication error
• prevent medication errors
• medication error rate
• serious medication error

Related terms

• adverse eventAn unintended event during healthcare that harms a patient and is caused by the care given rather than by the patient's illness.
• near missAn error or unsafe situation that was noticed and stopped before it could reach or harm a patient.
• incident reportA written record of an event that harmed, or could have harmed, a patient, visitor or member of staff, sent so that it can be investigated and learned from.
• patient safetyThe prevention of avoidable harm to patients during care, through safe systems, clear procedures and a culture of learning from mistakes.

This word in other fields

The same English word can have a different meaning in another field:

• medication error · Pharmacy & Pharmacology

More terms: Patient Safety and Risk

• root cause analysis
• hospital-acquired infection
• informed consent
• never event
• risk assessment
• safety culture