Synopsis
In the second, expanded edition of the acclaimed Medication Errors (1999), Michael R. Cohen brings together some 30 experts from pharmacy, medicine, nursing, and risk management to provide the best, most current thinking about medication errors. Their contributions make this the most comprehensive, authoritative examination in print of the causes of medication errors and strategies to prevent them. Medication Errors provides the health care community-acute care, long-term care, ambulatory care, the pharmaceutical industry, regulatory affairs, and academia-with practical guidance to make patients who take or receive medications safer.
Key Features:
Numerous insights into the causes of medication errors, including drug names, drug packaging and labeling, and error-prone abbreviations and dose expressions
In-depth analyses of prescribing errors, dispensing errors, drug administration errors, and errors related to drug-delivery devices, using examples of actual errors for illustration
Detailed discussions of specialty areas fraught with risk: cancer chemotherapy, pediatric and neonatal patients, and immunologic drugs
A comprehensive chapter on "high-alert" medications-those drugs most frequently involved in harmful events-with precautions that should be taken to avoid such mishaps
Dozens of tables and figures throughout, plus a color plate section, capturing key information concisely
Doody Review Services
Reviewer:Thomas Jacobsen, PharmD, MS, RPh, FASCP(ViroPharma Incorporated)
Description:This is the second edition of Medication Errors published by the American Pharmacists Association (APhA).
Purpose:The purpose is to provide guidance on how to make medications safer.
Audience:This book is written for those in an industry, retail, hospital, academia or other setting which involves medication usage. The editor is a nationally known expert on medication errors and is president of the Institute of Safe Medication Practices.
Features:This comprehensive book is unique to the field of pharmacy. It provides insights into the causes of dispensing and prescribing medication errors. The editor and contributing authors use actual examples and photos which depict how errors can be easily made if caution is not exercised. Of particular use are the numerous tables, color plates, and figures. A detailed chapter on "high alert" medications is a must-read chapter for anyone involved in medication prescribing or dispensing.
Assessment:This book is unique in the field. It should be a mandatory read for all pharmacy students and is certainly a valuable addition to any academic, industrial, or personal library.