Medication and Fluid orders in the Emergency Department: Examining the incidence of error and adverse events.

Understand the number and type of medication and fluid errors that occur in the Emergency Department, and identify whether overcrowding in the Emergency Department increases the errors made by Emergency Doctors and nurses.

Grant ID: PROJ-2009-008-RICHARDSON-MED-ERROR

Project Summary

Errors in prescribing and administering medications and fluids occur often in the hospital setting. However, limited information is known about the number or type of medication errors that occur in the Emergency Department. Moreover, little is known about the factors that cause errors in the Emergency Department.
The study will involve looking at the charts of all patients who presented to the Royal Brisbane and Women’s Hospital Emergency Department over a one month period. A nurse and a pharmacist will go through the charts to identify any errors and will categorize them according to the type of error they represent. Data on overcrowding will be obtained from hospital databases. Data analyses will look at the types of errors that are occurring and whether overcrowding is associated with more medication errors. The study is an important first step in increasing the safety of patients within Emergency Departments.

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