Exploring the Role of Guidelines in Contributing to Medication Errors: A Descriptive Analysis of National Patient Safety Incident Data.

ABSTRACT:

Introduction

Clinical guidelines can contribute to medication errors but there is no overall understanding of how and where these occur.

Objectives

We aimed to identify guideline-related medication errors reported via a national incident reporting system, and describe types of error, stages of medication use, guidelines, drugs, specialties and clinical locations most commonly associated with such errors.

Methods

Retrospective analysis of reports to the National Reporting and Learning System for England and Wales. A hierarchical task analysis (HTA) was developed, describing expected practice when using guidelines. A free-text search was conducted of medication incident reports (2016-2021) using search terms related to common guidelines. All identified reports linked to

SUBMITTER: Jones MD 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10954937 | biostudies-literature | 2024 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature