Reducing Medication Errors in Respiratory Care through Integrated Patient Registration and Pharmacy Verification Systems

Abstract

Medication errors remain a major challenge to patient safety and healthcare quality. Respiratory care is particularly vulnerable because patients frequently receive multiple inhaled, nebulized, oral, and intravenous medications, often during acute or rapidly changing clinical conditions. Errors involving patient identification, medication reconciliation, prescribing, dispensing, verification, administration, and monitoring can result in treatment failure, adverse drug events, prolonged hospitalization, and increased healthcare costs. Integrating patient registration systems with pharmacy verification and respiratory care workflows offers an opportunity to establish a closed-loop medication management process. This review examines the role of integrated patient registration, electronic health records (EHRs), computerized provider order entry (CPOE), clinical decision support systems (CDSS), pharmacist verification, electronic medication administration records (eMAR), and barcode medication administration (BCMA) in reducing medication errors associated with respiratory care. Particular attention is given to accurate patient identification, medication reconciliation, therapeutic duplication, allergy screening, dose and route verification, interdisciplinary communication, and bedside medication administration. The proposed integrated model connects registration personnel, physicians, pharmacists, nurses, and respiratory therapists through a shared electronic information environment. Successful implementation requires interoperability, standardized workflows, appropriate clinical alerts, professional training, human-factors engineering, and continuous quality monitoring. Integrating patient registration with pharmacy verification can establish multiple safety barriers throughout the medication-use process and potentially reduce preventable medication-related harm in respiratory care.