Although medical technology is generally thought to improve patient safety and outcomes, a recent study found this is not always the case. Researchers found that medication errors actually increased after doctors began using electronic prescription ordering systems.
According to InformationWeek HealthCare, researchers from the Geisinger Health System in Pennsylvania and the University of Wisconsin-Madison analyzed the rate of medical errors occurring in two intensive care units, at the same teaching hospital, before and after an e-prescription system was implemented. Surprisingly, the study revealed that more medication errors happened with the e-prescription system, even though it is designed to help prevent such health risks.
The study published in the Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association, found that identical medicine orders increased from 0.36 to 1.72 incidents per 100 patient days, and that same-medication errors increased from 0.31 to 1.87 for every 100 patient days after doctors began using the e-prescription system. In addition, the rate of prescription orders calling for medicine in the same class of medicine also increased.
The authors of the study identified several possible reasons for the increase in medical errors following implementation of the e-prescribing system. First, doctors sometimes ignored alerts indicating a duplicate medication order. The study reported that 7 percent of the duplicate orders were made by doctors who had to override alerts warning that they entered the same order more than once.
Also, the researchers discovered limitations in the e-prescribing system's software that may have made medication errors more likely. For example, the database did not recognize oral and intravenous forms of the same drug as the same medicine, missing the opportunity to alert the doctor to a potential duplicate order.
Patients can help avoid medication errors by asking their doctors specific questions about the dosage of and frequency with which they should take their medicine. However, if a medication error occurs, an injured patient may be able to make a claim against the responsible doctor, pharmacist or pharmacy in a personal-injury lawsuit.
If you or a loved one suffered harm from a medication error, contact an experienced personal injury attorney to discuss your legal options.
