Half of all hospital drug injections are wrong at Quackery or Cure Forum

[Guest guest]

http://curezone.com/forums/m.asp?f=214 & i=22

 

New ScientistFriday March 28, 2003Half of all hospital drug injections are wrongBy Shaoni BhattacharyaHalf of all drug injections given intravenously in hospitalsare done wrongly, a new study reveals, with a third of thesebeing potentially dangerous.British researchers uncovered the disturbing level of errors whenthey examined drugs given intravenously by nurses in two hospitalsin the UK. They believe the rate of mistakes they found is likelyto be representative of practice across Europe and the US.Nick Barber and Katja Taxis, at the School of Pharmacy, London,tracked the preparation and administration of over 400 intravenous(IV) doses given to patients on 10 different wards in the hospitals."We were surprised about how commonly errors occurred," say Barber."Although not all of these were serious."However, the error rate they calculated from their data predictsone serious error every day in every hospital in the UK, which isof very real concern, he says.The most common mistakes were injecting doses of concentrateddrugs too rapidly and preparing drugs incorrectly, by either usingthe wrong dose or dissolving them in the wrong solution. All couldbe fatal in certain circumstances.For some drugs, the speed at which it enters the body is crucial,Barber explains. If they are injected too fast, they can induceanaphylaxis - a life-threatening allergic reaction."This is because there is a load of potent foreign chemicalshooting around your body - if it hits the brain or heart it can havea marked effect," he said. But injecting a drug slowly, for example,over three minutes can be physically difficult for health care staff.One of the three "potentially severe" errors Barber and Taxis intheir study was of this type - with the antibiotic vancomycin beinggiven too quickly. Luckily, a pharmacist observer for the studyintervened before any harm was done.The second severe error occurred when a patient was nearly injectedwith an IV preparation containing five times the correct dose ofheparin - which stops the blood clotting. "Wrong dose errors are theones most likely to cause harm," notes Barber.The third potentially lethal error was when an intensive care teaminfusing a patient with adrenalin ran out of the drug and had notprepared a second infusion in time.Barber says the key to tackling such errors was to improve nursetraining. He says there would also be a role for companies todevelop a simple pump to help nurses administer drugs slowly.Journal reference: British Medical Journal (vol 326, p 684)