Terms
Addiction
Compulsive and uncontrollable use of a drug substance for reasons other than prescribed.
Distraction error
Occurs when a technician or pharmacist is interrupted in the middle of a filling process and forgets a portion of key information or train of thought, and some information or a safety decision gets missed.
Fear error
Occurs when a technician fears the consequences of speaking up and asking the pharmacist or the prescriber to double-check an element of the prescription.
Medguide
Printed information in which the FDA communicates side effects, adverse reactions, and black-box warnings for high-risk drugs.
MEdWatch
A voluntary program by the FDA that allows any healthcare professional or consumer to report a serious adverse event associated with the use of any drug, biological device, or dietary supplement.
Adverse drug error
A negative consequence to a patient from taking a particular drug, due to the nature of the drug itself, for certain vulnerable populations.
Documentation error
When essential information is not properly noted, such as a prescription, allergy, patient request, or other information in the medication profile, or is not properly processing insurance or billing.
Human failure
An error generated by a failure that occurs at an individual level.
Medication education error
When the proper medication education materials and counsel are not passed on to the patient or medication administrator.
Mislabeling error
When a medication has incorrect information on it, leading to the wrong use of it, or the wrong patient receiving it.
Alert Fatigue
Where the technician and/or the pharmacist starts to have a relaxed attitude and bypasses drug utilization warnings.
Drug seeker
A patient who is dependent on or addicted to drugs, who may receive prescriptions for the same or similar controlled drugs from several physicians and pharmacies.
Incomplete information
Occurs when full information is not available because the patient was not asked sufficient or proper questions, or the answers were somehow not recorded in the profile, or the patient withheld information deliberately or by accident of memory.
Medication error
Any preventable event that may cause or lead to inappropriate medication use or patient harm while the medication is in the control of the healthcare professional, patient, or consumer.
Omission error
An administration error in which a prescribed dose is not given.
Capture Error
An error that occurs when focus on a task is diverted elsewhere and, therefore, the error goes undetected.
Drug tolerance
When the body adapts to a drug, higher doses are needed to produce the same pharmacological effect.
Incorrect assumption error
Occurs when an essential piece of information cannot be verified, and an assumption is made.
Medication noncompliance
Failure to take medication therapy as the physician instructs, also called nonadherence.
Patient Safety Organization (PSOs)
Groups designed to collect and analyze error data from more than one health provider and offer quality improvement counsel.
Contaminated product error
When aseptic technique is not followed in compounding, the drug is no longer sterile and causes a microoganism infection.
Extra dose error
An error in which more doses are received by a patient than were prescribed by the physician.
iPledge program
A specific risk assessment program for isotretinoin, which can cause a high incidence of birth defects if not properly monitored.
MEDMARX
An Internet-based program of the USP for use by hospitals and healthcare systems for documenting, tracking, and identifying trends for adverse events and medication errors.
Pharmacist Recovery Network(PRN)
An organization to provide assistance and treatment for impaired colleagues who seek help without the risk of losing their license or registration.