HIQA: Medication usage errors a major cause of harm in Irish hospitals
Errors in the process of prescribing, dispensing, administering and monitoring medication usage are among the biggest causes of harm in our hospitals, according to the health watchdog.
The Health Information and Quality Authority (HIQA) has carried out is first ever medication safety check at seven acute hospitals around the country, including the Mater in Dublin and Bantry General in Cork.
The announced visits found that while all hospitals could improve, some were doing well when it came to monitoring the risk associated with taking medicines.
HIQA claims a Drugs and Therapeutics Committee is the best way to oversee that patients are being given the right amount of the right drugs.
6% of hospital discharge prescriptions were found to have a potentially severe medication prescribing error.
