PREVENTION OF MEDICAL ERRORS AND MEDICATION ERRORS

Course overview

Purpose The purpose of this course is to explain issues related to medical errors and patient safety concerns, including regulations, causes of errors, root cause analysis, types of errors, and methods to avoid errors. Goals Upon completion of this course, one should be able to:  Discuss goals and regulations related to medical errors.  Explain changes to Medicare-Medicaid reimbursement for preventable errors.  Explain 2 different types of root cause analysis.  Explain how Failure Mode and Effects Analysis (FMEA) differs from other forms of root cause analysis.  List and discuss 8 causes of medical errors.  Explain the steps to identification of patients.  Discuss issues related to handwriting.  Explain procedures for verbal/telephone orders and reporting and handsoff communication.  List and explain the 5 rights of medication administration.  Explain at least 4 methods of prevent wrong-route errors.  List at least 5 items from the do-not-use list of abbreviations.  Explain the difference among critical tests, critical results, and subsets of critical results.  Explain the 3 steps to prevent wrong site, wrong procedure, and wrong person surgery errors.  Explain handwashing and alcohol rub techniques for control of nosocomial infections.