‘Medication Errors in the ICU Contribute to Serious Infections’
- May 6, 2024
- 1 min read
“Vulnerable ICU patients are often receiving the wrong medicine or not the right amount. In fact, according to the Society of Critical Care Medicine, 80 percent of the serious medical errors reported in ICUs are medication errors – making medication errors in critical care units frequent and dangerous.
Medication errors cause ICU patients to be more susceptible to infections, like Clostridium difficile. C. difficile, or C. diff, is a bacterium that can cause a wide variety of symptoms from abdominal cramping to inflammation of the colon. C. difficile most often occurs in hospitals and typically after a patient has been over exposed to antibiotics.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have reported that the occurrence of, and deaths resulting from, C. difficile are at ‘historic highs.’ ” […]