First of all, there must be a paradigm shift in the patient-provider relationship, one being to "allow and encourage patients to take a more active role in their own medical care" via some type of partnership between a patient and his/her physician. This could be accomplished by better communication via physicians "fully informing their patients about the risks, contraindications and possible side effects" of all medications ("Preventing Medication Errors," 2006, 2). Second, physicians, nurses and other health care professionals must utilize information technologies to reduce medication errors. One way is to use "point-of-care reference information typically accessed over the Internet" which provides highly-detailed information about the specifics of a certain drug and how it interacts with other medications ("Preventing Medication Errors," 2006, 3). Of course, many hospitals are now using computers instead of paper to track and account for all medications and to ensure that...

Third, the improved labeling and packaging of medications will ensure that "drug information is communicated clearly and effectively" to physicians and their patients while also improving "drug nomenclature. . . drug names. . .abbreviations and acronyms" ("Preventing Medication Errors," 2006, 3).
As to the impact of these and other recommendations on health care in the U.S., by instituting these changes, physicians, nurses and other health care professionals will make less costly mistakes and will guarantee that patients are receiving exactly what is prescribed for them, thus lowering hospital costs and the possibility of overdose or even death from being given the wrong medication for the wrong ailment.

REFERENCES

Glanze, Walter D. (2001). Medication errors: a serious medical problem and its consequences. Journal of Nursing, 4(2), 134-36.

"Preventing Medication Errors." (2006).…