(October 9, 2009 - Insidermedicine)

Most residents of care homes experience errors in their medications, usually more than one, according to research published in the latest issue of Quality and Safety in Health Care.

Here are some tips to help you avoid medication errors:

•    Make sure that every health care professional you are seeing, including nontraditional healthcare professionals such as naturopaths, know about everything you are taking, including medicines, herbs, supplements, and vitamins

•    Once a year, bring bottles of everything you are taking to your doctor for review

•    Make sure your doctor knows all of the allergies or adverse events you have ever had to any medication or supplement

Researchers from the University of London looked at the rate of medication errors that occurred in a randomly selected sample of over 250 residents of 55 care homes located in the United Kingdom. The investigators observed the practices of each home, talked to the residents themselves, explored medical records, and examined medications in order to identify medication errors. They also interviewed physicians and staff in order to identify the causes of these errors. Experts assessed the potential harm of each error on a scale of 0 to 10, where 0 meant "no harm" and 10 meant "death".

The residents were taking an average of 8 medications each, and nearly 70% experienced medication errors. On average, each resident experienced two such errors. Types of errors included mistakes in prescribing, monitoring, administering, and dispensing of medication. On average, the potential for harm of each type of error was rated between 2.0 and 3.7. Some common causes of errors were physicians who were inaccessible or unfamiliar with the home or the resident being treated, overworked staff, inaccurate records-keeping, problems with teamwork or communications, and inefficient or difficult-to-follow systems.

Today's research uncovers an important problem with medication errors in care homes. Medication errors can occur anywhere. Always check with your physician or pharmacist that you have received the correct medication, that is does not interact with other medicines you are taking, and that you are taking it correctly.