Table 3.

Reasons for Medication Error Occurrence

Statements	N	%
The names of many medications are similar	239	(70.3%)
Different medications look alike	259	(76.2%)
The packaging of many medications is similar	261	(76.7%)
Physicians’ medication orders are not legible	228	(67.1%)
Physicians’ medication orders are not clear	223	(65.7%)
Physicians change orders frequently	258	(75.8%)
Abbreviations are used instead of writing the orders out completely	250	(73.5%)
Verbal orders are used instead of written orders	246	(72.3%)
Pharmacy delivers incorrect doses to this unit	208	(61.1%)
Pharmacy does not prepare the med correctly	217	(63.8%)
Pharmacy does not label the med correctly	195	(57.4%)
Pharmacists are not available 24 hours a day	204	(60%)
Frequent substitution of drugs (ie, cheaper generic for brandnames)	225	(66.2%)
Poor communication between nurses and physicians	215	(63.2%)
Many patients are on the same or similar medications	255	(74.9%
Unit staff do not receive enough in-services on new medications	255	(75%)
On this unit, there is no easy way to look up information on medications	248	(72.9%)
Nurses on this unit have limited knowledge about medications	219	(64.4%)
Nurses get pulled between teams and from other units	235	(69.1%)
When scheduled medications are delayed, nurses do not communicate the time when the next dose is due	224	(65.8%)
Nurses on this unit do not adhere to the approved medication administration procedure	207	(60.8%)
Nurses are interrupted while administering medications to perform other duties	239	(70.3%)
Unit staffing levels are inadequate	252	(74.4%)
All medications for one team of patients cannot be passed within an accepted time frame	243	(71.5%)
Medication orders are not transcribed to the Kardex correctly	215	(63.3%)
Errors are made in the Medication Kardex	206	(60.5%)
Equipment malfunctions or is not set correctly (eg, IV pump)	217	(63.9%)
Nurse is unaware of a known allergy	201	(59.0%)
Patients are off the ward for other care	206	(60.5%)