Peth reported possible causes of medication errors in the Emergency Department. These are divided along the stages of the medication process, starting with writing the prescription. The authors are from the University of Missouri.
Failures that can arise when writing a prescription:
(1) failure to have adequate drug reference sources readily available
(2) failure to ask the pharmacist for assistance when appropriate
(3) failure to take careful medical, medication and allergy histories
(4) failure to read the patient's medical records
(5) failure to order appropriate laboratory studies (such as tests of renal function)
(6) failure to obtain an accurate weight, especially in pediatric patients
(7) failure to consider drug-drug interaction
(8) failure to consider risk of certain adverse effects (falls, anticholinergic burden, etc)
(9) failure to consider impact of comorbidities
(10) failure to take the patient's financial or social status into account
(11) failure to consider the patient's mental status
(12) failure to consider teratogenicity of a drug in a pregnant woman
