#30 Preventing and reporting medication errors – Rabat CC & UMC

Look-alike medicines, unclear communication and distractions
during administration – medication errors may occur for many
different reasons. They all have in common that they are
unintended mistakes in the drug treatment process that may or may
not lead to patient harm. In this episode Ghita Benabdallah and
Loubna Alj from the national pharmacovigilance centre of Morocco,
and Alem Zekarias from Uppsala Monitoring Centre discuss how we
can prevent medication errors from occurring – and, when they do
occur, make sure that they are reported as such. 



Tune in to find out:


What are the most common causes for medication errors?

How should strategies for preventing medication errors be
devised? 

How does the assessment of suspected medication error reports
differ from “regular” ADR signal assessment?

What can be done to encourage healthcare professionals to
report medication errors?




Want to know more?


In March 2024, WHO published this systematic review of the
global burden of preventable medication-related harm in
healthcare.

According to this 2021 article in BMJ, an estimated 237
million medication errors occur in England every year. Avoidable
adverse drug events were calculated to cost the National Health
Service an annual sum of GBP 98 462 582 per year, consuming 181
626 bed-days, and causing/contributing to 1708 deaths. 

This 2012 meta-analysis confirmed what had been suggested in
several observational studies: that preventable adverse drug
reactions are a significant healthcare burden.

The European Medicines Agency (EMA) has a dedicated webpage
with recommendations, guidelines, legal requirements and a good
practice guide on medication errors. 






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