Root-Cause Analysis and Safety Improvement Plan

Root-Cause Analysis and Safety Improvement Plan

Healthcare organizations use root cause analysis to study activities that caused

unfavorable clinical outcomes or led to patient harm. Consequently, the entities can identify

suitable strategies to enhance the safety of the patients and minimize potential medication errors

(Billstein-Leber et al., 2018). Healthcare facilities promote patient safety programs to reduce

preventable injuries and infections. The most common causes of medication administration

errors (MAEs) include wrong medication, missing, and wrong doses. According to Afaya,

Konlan, and Kim (2021), it is vital to establish the root cause of MAEs to guarantee the safety

and well-being of the patients and the care providers. Most healthcare facilities take disciplinary

action against healthcare practitioners committing medication errors. MAEs in healthcare can be

alleviated by constantly assessing their potential causes and developing viable prevention

strategies. This paper aims to identify the root cause of MAEs and the best-practice strategies to

tackle the health problem. Furthermore, an effective safety improvement plan will be developed

to attain safe medication. Safety improvement plans require various organizational resources,

including human and financial resources.

The Root Cause of Medication Administration Errors (MAEs) in healthcare

The most common root causes of MAEs in healthcare comprise inadequate patient

education, poor communication, inaccurate drug administration, drug-related issues, poor

practices in drug distribution, miscalculation of doses, prescribing errors, and erroneous

diagnosis. Inaccurately prescribed medication leads to numerous misadventures in therapeutic

medication. Kawade, Doke, and Verma (2020) affirm that over 250,000 patient deaths in the US

annually are attributed to medication errors. Preventable MAEs are often experienced when

systems for safe medication prescription are not adequately utilized