In the medical organizations can appear various problems associated with patient safety. Lack of hygiene, healthcare-related infections, drug shortages, equipment, and treatment issues might lead to significant problems for patients and professionals that can face lawsuits. One patient safety problem that I have observed in a previous medical setting is medication errors that several times had a negative impact on patients’ health state (Tariq et al., 2020). Therefore, the clinical issue is crucial and requires further research to evade compromising patients’ safety.
There can be several causes of medication errors, including lack of attention when providing treatment for a person, gaps in the education of a medical professional who prescribed specific drugs, irrelevant health records, or improper information stated about a patient. Among the possible negative outcomes of the medication errors might be allergic reactions, worsening of a patient’s health, and a significant impact on non-related organs that might be affected.
One specific change in practice that could improve patient outcomes is a patient medication review proposed by WHO (2016). The change requires medical professions to establish peer-review online records with EHRs and clinical decision support so that professionals will check the medication in parallel. To study the topic and test the effectiveness of the practice, the following research question can be established: In the adult inpatient medical population (P), does the use of peer-reviewed online medication system signage (I) versus the absence of the platform (C) decrease a rate of medication errors (O)? The timing of the research can be changed according to the situation. The research is suggested to be clinical and interventional to gather quantifiable results (“Literature reviews: types of clinical study designs,” 2020). The type of research stands over other types due to the need for intervention in patient care current practice and aim to identify results that can prove that the change has positive effects on patient outcomes by reduction of treatment errors. Other types of research can be used further to expand the study and observe changes in medical practicum sites.
References
Literature reviews: types of clinical study designs. (2020). Georgia State University. Web.
Tariq R.A., Vashisht R., & Scherbak Y. (2020). Medication Errors. StatPearls Publishing. Web.
World Health Organization (WHO). (2016). Medication errors: Technical series on safer primary care.