Incident Log
Date of incident: 10/02/2016
Error type: dispensing error
Patient age: 70
Patient sex: female
Brief summary of incident: Advice offered was to stop simvastatin 40mg tablets for the duration of antibiotic treatment + 7 days after last dose. This advice was incorrect, as it is only necessary to stop simvastatin for the duration of the antibiotic.
Name of medication: Simvastatin;
Level of harm that could have occurred: 2
The reason you think the potential harm is at the level you have chosen:
It is not a life-threatening error, but it involves unnecessary stopping of medication.
Possible cause/contributory factors: Misunderstanding of BNF directions
Reasons why incident occurred and actions required to prevent reoccurence:
Read the BNF more carefully
Best description of this error/near miss:
verbal direction to patient wrong or omitted
Error type: dispensing error
Patient age: 70
Patient sex: female
Brief summary of incident: Advice offered was to stop simvastatin 40mg tablets for the duration of antibiotic treatment + 7 days after last dose. This advice was incorrect, as it is only necessary to stop simvastatin for the duration of the antibiotic.
Name of medication: Simvastatin;
Level of harm that could have occurred: 2
The reason you think the potential harm is at the level you have chosen:
It is not a life-threatening error, but it involves unnecessary stopping of medication.
Possible cause/contributory factors: Misunderstanding of BNF directions
Reasons why incident occurred and actions required to prevent reoccurence:
Read the BNF more carefully
Best description of this error/near miss:
verbal direction to patient wrong or omitted