Facilities attempt to erect safeguards, but errors continue to occur.
Most do not result in permanent damage or publicity but nearly every incident compromises patient safety. Accompanying the impact on patients and health care professionals are significant financial costs associated with tracking and correcting errors, treatment and staff time, and in the most dire cases, costs devoted to litigation. Some of the most recent research on the topic of medication errors indicated that the root causes of these errors stem from process failures or problems, either in the way we process a medication order, or in the processes we use to verify its accuracy. Unless otherwise noted, BD, BD Logo and all other trademarks are the property of Becton, Dickinson and Company.