Medication administration errors encompass a variety of mistakes, including incorrect dosages, wrong timing, improper prescriptions, and failure to administer the right drug to the right patient.
These errors can occur at any point in the medication process, whether during infusion, oral delivery, or prescription, and have been a longstanding issue within the healthcare sector, contributing to substantial morbidity and mortality rates in Nigeria.
We sat down with Marian Obuseh, a healthcare informatics and human factors expert, to discuss medication errors in the healthcare sector of Nigeria. Miss Obuseh works with clinicians and has published numerous peer-reviewed articles that have applied informatics to address medication administration in the United States. With her expertise, these approaches are adaptable to developing countries like Nigeria.
She says, “In a country with a high rate of medication errors, the adoption of advanced informatics solutions could revolutionize the way medications are administered and managed. This can lead to safer patient outcomes and more efficient healthcare delivery, which is critical in our resource-strained environments.”
Medication errors are also heavily underreported. One study by Ogunleye et al. reported that amongst healthcare professionals in 10 tertiary hospitals across Nigeria, 35.5% of 2,386 professionals reported medication errors, while 33.4% did not think reporting was necessary.
One of the critical aspects of Miss Obuseh’s work is the enhancement of error reporting systems through the application of human factors engineering. These systems are essential for capturing, analysing, and learning from medication errors.
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“Effective error reporting systems are crucial in healthcare settings. They not only help us understand where errors occur but also why they occur and how they can be prevented in the future,” says Miss Obuseh.
“By applying human factors principles, we can create and design these systems so that they are user-friendly, encouraging more consistent and accurate reporting by healthcare professionals.”
Moreover, Miss Obuseh emphasizes the importance of a no-blame culture to encourage reporting.
“When medical staff fear retribution, they are less likely to report errors. Part of our design process involves creating systems that anonymize data and focus on the error, not the individual. This approach helps in building a culture that prioritizes improvement over punishment,” she explains.
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