Medication errors involving intravenous patient-controlled analgesia: results from the 2005-2015 MEDMARX database.
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ABSTRACT: Background:The aim of this study was to determine the current magnitude and characteristics of intravenous patient-controlled analgesia (IV-PCA) errors, and to identify opportunities for improving the PCA modality. Methods:We conducted a descriptive analysis of IV-PCA medication errors submitted to the MEDMARX database. Events were restricted to those occurring in inpatient hospital settings between 1 January 2005 and 31 December 2015. IV-PCA errors were classified by error category, cause of error, error type, level of care rendered, and actions taken. Results:A total of 1948 IV-PCA errors were identified as potential errors (3.9%), nonharmful errors (89.5%), or harmful errors (6.7%) based on the National Coordinating Council for Medication Error Reporting and Prevention taxonomy for categorizing medication errors. Of these, 19.1% required a clinical intervention to address the deleterious effects of the error, indicating an underestimation of the risks associated with IV-PCA errors. The most frequent types of errors were improper dose/quantity (43.2%) and omission errors (19.9%). While human performance deficit was the leading cause of error (50.2%), other common causes included failure to follow procedure and protocol (42.2%) and improper use of the pump (22.7%). Although remedial actions were often taken to prevent error recurrence, actions were taken to rectify the systemic deficits that led to errors in only a minority of cases (11.8%). Conclusion:Preventable errors continue to pose unnecessary risks to patients receiving IV-PCA. Multimodal analgesic regimens and novel PCA systems that reduce human error are needed to prevent errors while preserving the advantages of PCA for the management of acute pain.
SUBMITTER: Mohanty M
PROVIDER: S-EPMC6199682 | biostudies-literature | 2018 Aug
REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature
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