Thank you for all you do. This is my final paper for this class. Please utilize all areas necessary to get full points. If you recall, the topic we used for my previous paper was Medication errors. That is kind of the same topic you will be working on for this final paper. Analyzing Health Care Challenges- A Research-Based Approach to Problem Solving Analyzing Health Care Challenges- A Research-Based Approach to Problem Solving Write a 4-6 page analysis of a current problem or issue in health care, including a proposed solution and possible ethical implications. Introduction In your healthcare career, you will face many problems that demand a solution. By using research skills, you can learn what others are doing and saying about similar problems. Then, you can analyze the problem and the people and systems it affects. You can also examine potential solutions and their ramifications. This assessment allows you to practice this approach with a real-world problem.
Analyzing Health Care Challenges- A Research-Based Approach to Problem Solving
Introduction
A medication error results from single or multiple failures in the treatment process. Such a failure can compromise the safety of the medication and the patient’s health. Additionally, medication errors can lead to practice issues for the prescriber and their health organization. This paper analyzes medication errors are an issue of concern in health care. The analysis identifies the elements of medication errors, explores the context in which medical errors occur, why and how they occur, and the impacts of medication errors on the safety of the patient and practice of the prescriber and related health organizations. The paper will also consider some approaches to reduce and prevent medication errors, propose one viable solution, analyze its ethical implications, and then develop an implementation plan for the proposed solution.
Elements of the Problem/Issue
Medication Errors as a Health Care Issue
Based on research on medical incident rates within and outside clinical settings, errors related to medications have a higher prevalence than any other medical errors. According to a study and healthcare statistics published on the My Medical Score website (mymedicalscore.com, 2020), medical errors cause over 161,000 deaths per year across the US. Approximately 9,000 patient deaths are reported annually in the US due to medication errors. Further, care for patients who are victims of medication errors and money lost due to such errors is over $40 billion per year (mymedicalscore.com, 2020). Consequently, medication errors are critical healthcare issues that need to be addressed, and solutions need to be developed and implemented. Medication errors occur within hospital settings and outside with connected causes of the errors. However, all medication errors that occur within and outside hospital settings can be prevented.
Occurrence of Medication Errors
Various factors are responsible for the occurrence of medication errors. According to Da Silva and Krishnamurthy (2016), medication errors occur at different levels in the medication use process, either during prescription, initial pharmacy dispensation, administration during hospitalization, and at the subsequent outpatient follow-up level. All these levels are directly affected by medication elements such as drug information, patient information, communication across all those involved in prescription and administration, manufacturing and drug labeling, medication storage, prescriber competency, patient medication knowledge, environmental factors, and the quality of the medication process influence the process of medication administration and use. Mistakes and failures in either of these elements can lead to imminent medication errors. Information about the medication, the patient’s understanding of the information, and communication between various medical professionals and the patient are the most influencing factors of medication errors.
A study by Manias (2018) argued that medication errors resulted from breakdowns in communication, especially in interdisciplinary collaborations. Lack of effective and efficient communication creates a disconnection between health professionals in clinical practice and can lead to adverse service outcomes, including medication errors. Another major element of medication-related communication is the omission or lack of sufficient information, such as a lack of patient information, such as age, medical history, and disease history, to make an informed prescription. An example of the relationship between communication, patient and drug information, and medication errors in interdisciplinary collaborations can be identified in a case where the clerk records the wrong age of a patient, forwards the information to a physician who carries out diagnostic tests and records incomplete information then forwards that to the nurse who further propagates the errors by only prescribing drugs for the diagnosis made. If the drugs are administered based on age, the pharmacist will give the wrong dosage. The pharmacist may also fail to explain the medications to the patient and note the dosage in illegible handwriting.
Analysis
Medication errors can be described as preventable inappropriate use of medications. Health issues and situations within populations are growing complex as new diseases emerge. For example, the changing population demographics, such as an aging population with complex and chronic illnesses, push most global populations to be over-dependent on medications. As the population demographics change and new diseases are discovered, newer medications are developing. Today, more and more drugs are prescribed globally by