Dr Teddy Henriksen1
1University Of The Sunshine Coast, Sippy Downs, Australia, 2University of Technology Sydney, Sydney, Australia
Abstract:
Medications are the most used intervention to prevent, treat and cure illness. Despite the many benefits that medications can provide, their use is also associated with potential harm. The term medication misadventure describes any type of patient interaction with a medication that results in some form of harm to the patient. Medication misadventures carry a high cost for both individuals and society. For example, in Australia in 2019 it was estimated that 250,000 hospital admissions costing $1.4 billion, and an additional 400,000 emergency department presentations could be attributed to medication misadventures. Previous analysis of medication misadventures indicates at a staggering 50 percent of this harm is preventable. Unsurprisingly, medication misadventures have been widely studied and have attracted a great deal of scholarly attention. However, to date a comprehensive map of the medication journey appears to be lacking. This work seeks to fill this gap by mapping the patient-medication journey that culminates with the patient having safely used a medication for its intended purpose.
Having mapped the patient’s medication journey, points from which medication misadventure can stem are identified. This work then highlights potential medication misadventure points that have attracted limited or no scholarly scrutiny. As a result, this work can be used to improve medication safety by highlighting areas for further research concentrated on potentially misadventure-causing points in the medication journey that have up until now been under-researched. In so doing, this work can positively impact patient safety and healthcare costs.
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