Pharmacists call this "self-checking", and it leaves patients at greater risk of getting the wrong medication.
Patients in the United States were also more likely to have experienced a medical error, like getting the wrong medication or failing to receive prompt notice of an abnormal test result, and they were more likely to suffer from a lack of coordination in their care.
"If my grandmother gets put on the wrong medication, there's no telling what would happen," Janice said.
For example, eleven respondents (12%) described an important relationship between medication and their admission (difficulty accessing medication, taking the wrong medication, finally getting prescribed the right medication, not taking medication when they should have).
Parallels were drawn between an immunocompromised patient getting an infection through poor hand hygiene practice and a patient being given the wrong medication and experiencing an adverse event.
"For example it takes, on average, 10 years before a person with bipolar disorder gets a correct diagnosis, which comes with a number of mental and physical health implications, such as side-effects from the wrong medication," he said.
Take the more than 7 million patients a year accidentally given the wrong medication — resulting in 7,000 deaths annually.
The doctor gives her the wrong medication, and she dies.
What if this is the wrong medication?
Our mistake of putting him on the wrong medication, based on incorrect diagnosis, exacerbated his deterioration.
