Acceptability and feasibility of the Leapfrog computerized physician order entry evaluation tool for hospitals outside the United States

BACKGROUND

Computerized physician order entry (CPOE) with clinical decision support is expected to deliver many benefits in terms of patient safety. The Leapfrog tool was developed to allow hospitals to assess their medication-safety related decision support. To explore the approach's generalizability, we examined its acceptability and feasibility through an evaluation using this tool in four Korean hospital systems.

METHODS

Four hospitals with locally developed CPOE systems participated, and a cross-sectional study design was used with the approval of the Leapfrog Group and the institutional review board at each hospital site. The hospitals were tertiary and academic institutions with long experience of advanced CPOE. From January 21 to 28, 2014, web-based tests were conducted at each site following the given instructions, and the results were self-reported. We measured each system's response rate, category completion rate, and time to complete the evaluation. Additionally, we compared the evaluation results of the four systems with scores from five US systems, as was reported in another study.

RESULTS

The four systems underwent the tests, and the overall category completion rates ranged from 67.9% to 75.5%. The times to finish the tests were tolerable and within the allowed test timeframe. One system did not pass the deception analysis, which checks for false positives, due to a conflict with another type of alert checking for the presence of a medical diagnosis for documentation purposes. The other three systems scored at the completed the evaluation stage, with scores ranging from 21.6% to 36.5%. Of the nine error categories, Drug-Allergy was an area of strength for all systems, whereas the categories of Therapeutic duplication, Drug-Labs, and Drug-Age were areas of weakness for all. In comparison with the US systems, gaps were identified, and further improvement is needed.

CONCLUSIONS

The acceptability of the CPOE evaluation tool was moderate, but the feasibility was sufficient to operate the test outside the US, and the results revealed many opportunities for improvement in the Korean systems, as was the case when this application was introduced in the US.

The effect of provider characteristics on the responses to medication-related decision support alerts

BACKGROUND

Improving the quality of prescribing and appropriate handling of alerts remains a challenge for design and implementation of clinical decision support (CDS) and comparatively little is known about the effects that provider characteristics have on how providers respond to medication alerts.

OBJECTIVES

To investigate the relationship between provider characteristics and their response to medication alerts in the outpatient setting.

DESIGN AND PARTICIPANTS

Retrospective observational study using a prescription log from the automated electronic outpatient system for each of 478 providers using the system at primary care practices affiliated with 2 teaching hospitals, from 2009 to 2011 for six types of alerts. Provider characteristics were obtained from the hospital credentialing system and the Massachusetts Board of Registration in Medicine.

MAIN MEASURES

Override rates per 100 prescriptions and 100 alerts.

RESULTS

The providers' mean override rates per 100 prescriptions and per 100 alerts were 0.52 (95% confidence interval (CI), 0.46-0.58) and 0.42 (95% CI, 0.38-0.44) respectively. The physicians (n=422) on average overrode drug alerts with rates of 0.48 per 100 drugs and 0.44 per 100 warnings. Univariate analysis revealed that six physician characteristics (physician type, age, number of encounters, medical school ranking, residency hospital ranking, and acceptance of Medicaid) were significantly related to the override rate. Multiple regression showed that house staff were more likely to override than staff physicians (p<0.001), physicians with fewer than 13 average daily encounters were more likely to override than others with more than 13 encounters (p (range), <0.001-0.05), and graduates of the top 5 medical schools were more likely to override than the others (p=0.04). All six predictors together explained 30% and 50% of the variance in override rates, respectively.

CONCLUSIONS

Consideration of six specific physician characteristics may help inform interventions to improve prescriber decision-making.

Medication reconciliation for patients undergoing spinal surgery

PURPOSE

In recent years, a marked increase of spinal operations prompted a debate on quality issues. Besides obvious factors, such as the surgical technique, medication safety has been identified as one of the major risk factors for patients undergoing anesthesia and surgery. While the issue has already been addressed by hospital pharmacist and anesthesiologists, the prescription of correct medication remains within the surgeons' responsibility. We, therefore, investigated medication-related errors in spinal instrumentation patients and applied current medication reconciliation strategies.

METHODS

We performed a data survey on all patients undergoing spinal instrumentation in 2011. Risk factors for medication safety were identified and prioritized. Specific counter-measures were introduced in 2012 and evaluated in 2013.

RESULTS

147 patients were included in the 2011 and 162 in the 2013 survey. As top five risk factors we identified the preoperative stopping of medication, recording the medication history, prescription process of postoperative analgetics and anticoagulants and the medication list at discharge. Specific counter-measures included standardization of preparations, doses and the prescription process and improving access to this information (online and via a smartphone application). In elective patients, recording the medication histories was delegated to a hospital pharmacist and informative flyers and posters were used to integrate the patients themselves into the process. Counter-measures directed against the first four risk factors resulted in a significant reduction of medication errors. The last risk factor was targeted by instructing the responsible staff only, which proved to be a rather ineffective measure.

CONCLUSIONS

Medication safety could be significantly improved by implementation of counter-measures specific to the identified risk factors.

How to make medication error reporting systems work--Factors associated with their successful development and implementation

This study explored factors associated with successful development and implementation of medication error reporting (MER) systems in different healthcare contexts. A descriptive online questionnaire comprising of structured and open-ended questions was responded to by 16 medication safety experts in 16 countries. The present paper describes the rich and multidimensional qualitative data from the experts' narratives from open-ended questions. Several factors related to the national context of MER systems, i.e., the operational environment, were identified to impact successful development and implementation of these systems. The factors were: awareness of deficiencies in medication safety at local and national levels to justify the need for MER systems; gaining political will for the development and implementation actions together with international and governmental support; creating or reforming legislation and national regulations, guidelines and strategies to support MER; allocation of adequate human and financial resources; establishment of an organisation or centre to coordinate and lead MER; and extending systems approach and safety culture to all parts of the operational environment to facilitate openness on and learning from medication errors. In conclusion, operational environments of MER systems must be constructed to support functionality of these systems, and need to be improved in many countries.

A cloud medication safety support system using QR code and Web services for elderly outpatients

BACKGROUND

Drug is an important part of disease treatment, but medication errors happen frequently and have significant clinical and financial consequences. The prevalence of prescription medication use among the ambulatory adult population increases with advancing age. Because of the global aging society, outpatients need to improve medication safety more than inpatients.

OBJECTIVE

The elderly with multiple chronic conditions face the complex task of medication management. To reduce the medication errors for the elder outpatients with chronic diseases, a cloud medication safety supporting system is designed, demonstrated and evaluated.

METHODS

The proposed system is composed of a three-tier architecture: the front-end tier, the mobile tier and the cloud tier. The mobile tier will host the personalized medication safety supporting application on Android platforms that provides some primary functions including reminders for medication, assistance with pill-dispensing, recording of medications, position of medications and notices of forgotten medications for elderly outpatients. Finally, the hybrid technology acceptance model is employed to understand the intention and satisfaction level of the potential users to use this mobile medication safety support application system.

RESULTS

The result of the system acceptance testing indicates that this developed system, implementing patient-centered services, is highly accepted by the elderly.

CONCLUSION

This proposed M-health system could assist elderly outpatients' homecare in preventing medication errors and improving their medication safety.

Pharmaceutical policy Part 1 The challenge to pharmacists to engage in policy development

Across the world medicines are the ubiquitous technology in the diagnosis, treatment and prevention of disease. Pharmaceutical policy, as part of national health care policy, is concerned with the provision and use of medicines. Pharmacists are critical to the medicines management process, yet are often largely detached from policy development. Logically, they should inform Government policies which impact on their work or where their skills could be best applied to implement health care policy and medicines utilisation in particular. It therefore makes it critically important that the pharmaceutical profession engages with national policy makers and in the strategic planning for health care. This is the first of two articles directed to this specific issue. Firstly, it identifies a number of the practice challenges for pharmacy and medicines management, their implications for policy and the need for a balanced approach. Drawing from a range of international experiences some key learning points in respect of formulating and implementing national medicines policies are presented. Finally, reference is made to several authoritative evidence bases to inform the development of pharmaceutical practice and medicines management policies.

Pharmaceutical Policy Part 2 Pharmaceutical engagement and policy development: a framework for influence

The formulation of pharmaceutical policy is a critical component of healthcare planning, made more important given that medicines are the ubiquitous technology in the diagnosis, treatment and prevention of disease and constitute a significant proportion of health care expenditure. Pharmacists need to inform policy development that will, in its implementation, offer opportunity to deliver greater rationality, safety, effectiveness and economy to the medicines use process and where patients experience enhanced health outcomes. This is the second of two articles directed to this specific issue focusing on how policy and strategic change can be affected. This is discussed from three overlapping perspectives - from the point of view of skills, that is, the skills or tactics needed to be employed to effect change; secondly, from a structural standpoint in terms of what positional arrangements exist that could be positively exploited; and thirdly, the subject, particularly its relevance to the contemporary situation. These approaches are then exemplified through a worked example on medication safety and its application in practice.

Patient perceptions of proactive medication discontinuation

OBJECTIVE

While many patients prefer fewer medications, decisions about medication discontinuation involve collaboration between patients and providers. We sought to identify patient perspectives on intentional medication discontinuation in order to optimize medication use.

METHODS

We conducted 20 interviews and two focus groups with a convenience sample of patients (22 men, 5 women; mean age 66 years) at two US Veterans Affairs Medical Centers. We queried patients' experiences with and attitudes toward taking multiple medications, preferences about taking fewer medications, and communication with their providers about stopping a medicine. Transcripts were analyzed qualitatively.

RESULTS

Three main themes emerged to create a conceptual model of medication discontinuation from the patient perspective: (1) conflicting views of medication, encompassing the sub-themes of desire for fewer medications, adherence, and specific versus general; (2) importance of patient-provider relationships, encompassing the sub-themes of trust, relying on expertise, shared decision making, and balancing multiple providers; and (3) limited experience with medication discontinuation.

CONCLUSION

Many patients who have a preference to take fewer medicines do not share their beliefs with providers and recall few instances of provider-initiated medication discontinuation.

PRACTICE IMPLICATIONS

Strengthening patient-provider relationships and eliciting patient attitudes about taking fewer medications may enable appropriate discontinuation of unnecessary medications.

Computerised physician order entry-related medication errors: analysis of reported errors and vulnerability testing of current systems

IMPORTANCE

Medication computerised provider order entry (CPOE) has been shown to decrease errors and is being widely adopted. However, CPOE also has potential for introducing or contributing to errors.

OBJECTIVES

The objectives of this study are to (a) analyse medication error reports where CPOE was reported as a 'contributing cause' and (b) develop 'use cases' based on these reports to test vulnerability of current CPOE systems to these errors.

METHODS

A review of medication errors reported to United States Pharmacopeia MEDMARX reporting system was made, and a taxonomy was developed for CPOE-related errors. For each error we evaluated what went wrong and why and identified potential prevention strategies and recurring error scenarios. These scenarios were then used to test vulnerability of leading CPOE systems, asking typical users to enter these erroneous orders to assess the degree to which these problematic orders could be entered.

RESULTS

Between 2003 and 2010, 1.04 million medication errors were reported to MEDMARX, of which 63 040 were reported as CPOE related. A review of 10 060 CPOE-related cases was used to derive 101 codes describing what went wrong, 67 codes describing reasons why errors occurred, 73 codes describing potential prevention strategies and 21 codes describing recurring error scenarios. Ability to enter these erroneous order scenarios was tested on 13 CPOE systems at 16 sites. Overall, 298 (79.5%) of the erroneous orders were able to be entered including 100 (28.0%) being 'easily' placed, another 101 (28.3%) with only minor workarounds and no warnings.

CONCLUSIONS AND RELEVANCE

Medication error reports provide valuable information for understanding CPOE-related errors. Reports were useful for developing taxonomy and identifying recurring errors to which current CPOE systems are vulnerable. Enhanced monitoring, reporting and testing of CPOE systems are important to improve CPOE safety.

An education intervention to improve nursing students' understanding of medication safety

Medication safety is a significant issue. Whilst medication administration is a routine task, it is a complex nursing activity. It is recognised in the literature that medication related adverse events are most often related to systems failures associated with the complex process of medication administration. This paper examines student's perceived effectiveness of an educational intervention, designed to demonstrate the complex and multidisciplinary factors of systems related failures in medication administration. The intervention was underpinned by adult and experiential learning concepts and used a problem-based learning approach. A series of short digital recordings were developed along with discussion points to illustrate multidisciplinary interactions involved in medication administration. A small sample of second and third year undergraduate nursing students (n = 28) evaluated the effectiveness of the educational resource. Our findings suggest that such resources are effective in demonstrating the complexity of medication related error and were authentic to practice. An educational intervention using problem based learning afforded nursing students the opportunity to engage with the systems factors that contribute to medication errors. Interventions that highlight these factors may play an important role in raising awareness of these issues and encourage students to carry this knowledge into clinical practice.

Mitigating errors caused by interruptions during medication verification and administration: interventions in a simulated ambulatory chemotherapy setting

BACKGROUND

Nurses are frequently interrupted during medication verification and administration; however, few interventions exist to mitigate resulting errors, and the impact of these interventions on medication safety is poorly understood.

OBJECTIVE

The study objectives were to (A) assess the effects of interruptions on medication verification and administration errors, and (B) design and test the effectiveness of targeted interventions at reducing these errors.

METHODS

The study focused on medication verification and administration in an ambulatory chemotherapy setting. A simulation laboratory experiment was conducted to determine interruption-related error rates during specific medication verification and administration tasks. Interventions to reduce these errors were developed through a participatory design process, and their error reduction effectiveness was assessed through a postintervention experiment.

RESULTS

Significantly more nurses committed medication errors when interrupted than when uninterrupted. With use of interventions when interrupted, significantly fewer nurses made errors in verifying medication volumes contained in syringes (16/18; 89% preintervention error rate vs 11/19; 58% postintervention error rate; p=0.038; Fisher's exact test) and programmed in ambulatory pumps (17/18; 94% preintervention vs 11/19; 58% postintervention; p=0.012). The rate of error commission significantly decreased with use of interventions when interrupted during intravenous push (16/18; 89% preintervention vs 6/19; 32% postintervention; p=0.017) and pump programming (7/18; 39% preintervention vs 1/19; 5% postintervention; p=0.017). No statistically significant differences were observed for other medication verification tasks.

CONCLUSIONS

Interruptions can lead to medication verification and administration errors. Interventions were highly effective at reducing unanticipated errors of commission in medication administration tasks, but showed mixed effectiveness at reducing predictable errors of detection in medication verification tasks. These findings can be generalised and adapted to mitigate interruption-related errors in other settings where medication verification and administration are required.

Impact of admission medication reconciliation performed by clinical pharmacists on medication safety

BACKGROUND

Many activities contribute to reduce drug-related problems. Among them, the medication reconciliation (MR) is used to compare the best possible medication history (BPMH) and the current admission medication order (AMO) to identify and solve unintended medication discrepancies (UMD). This study aims to assess the impact of the implementation of admission MR by clinical pharmacists on UMD.

METHOD

This prospective study was carried out in two units of general medicine and infectious and tropical diseases in a 1844-bed French hospital. A retroactive MR performed in an observational period was compared to a proactive MR realized in an interventional period. We used a logistic regression to identify risk factors of UMD.

RESULTS

During both periods, 394 patients were enrolled and 2,725 medications were analyzed in the BPMH. Proactive MR reduced the percentage of patients with at least one UMD compared with retroactive process (respectively 2.1% vs. 45.8%, p<0.001). Patients with at least one UMD during both periods were older compared to patients without UMD (79 vs. 72, p<0.005) and had more medications at admission (7 vs. 6, p<0.0001). UMD occur 38 times more often when there is no clinical pharmacist intervention. Among the 226 UMD detected in both periods, 42% would have required monitoring or intervention to preclude harm, and 10% had potential harm to the patient and 2% were life threatening.

CONCLUSION

Proactive MR performed by clinical pharmacists is an acute process of detection and correction of UMD, but it requires a lot of human resources.

Occurrence and clinical management of moderate-to-severe adverse events during drug-resistant tuberculosis treatment: a retrospective cohort study

OBJECTIVES

To determine the incidence of symptomatic moderate-to-severe adverse events during treatment of drug-resistant tuberculosis, and to compare their risk and outcomes by patients' human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) co-infection status.

METHODS

We conducted a retrospective cohort analysis of patients treated for drug-resistant tuberculosis between January 2008 and February 2010. Routinely, clinicians monitored and managed patients' response to treatment until its completion. Any symptomatic adverse event observed by the clinician or reported by the patient was recorded in the standard patient treatment booklet of the National Tuberculosis and Leprosy Programme. There were 18 symptomatic adverse events routinely monitored. Depending on the nature of the medical intervention needed, each was graded as mild, moderate or severe. Data were extracted from the patient treatment booklet using a structured form, then descriptive, bivariate and Cox proportional hazard analysis performed, stratified by patients' HIV infection status. Statistical associations were done at the 5% level of significance and reported with 95% confidence intervals.

RESULTS

Fifty seven (57) patients with drug-resistant tuberculosis were identified, 31 (53%) of whom were HIV co-infected. The cumulative incidence of moderate-to-severe adverse events was 46 events in 100 patients. HIV co-infected patients experienced more moderate-to-severe adverse events compared with the HIV uninfected patients (median 3 versus 1 events, p = 0.01). They had a four-fold increase in the cumulative hazard of moderate-to-severe adverse events compared with the HIV uninfected patients (HR = 4.0, 95% CI 1.5 - 10.5). Moderate-to-severe adverse events were the main determinant of a clinician's decision to reduce the dose or to stop the suspected offending medicine (RR = 3.8, 95% 1.2-11.8).

CONCLUSIONS

Moderate-to-severe adverse events are common during drug-resistant tuberculosis therapy. They are more likely to occur and to persist in HIV co-infected patients than in HIV uninfected patients. Clinicians should employ various strategies for preventing drug-induced patient discomfort and harm, such as reducing the dose or stopping the suspected offending medicine. Managers of tuberculosis control programmes should strengthen pharmacovigilance systems. We recommend a more powered study for conclusive risk-factor analysis.

A continuous quality improvement project to reduce medication error in the emergency department

BACKGROUND:

Medication errors are a common source of adverse healthcare incidents particularly in the emergency department (ED) that has a number of factors that make it prone to medication errors. This project aims to reduce medication errors and improve the health and economic outcomes of clinical care in Hong Kong ED.

METHODS:

In 2009, a task group was formed to identify problems that potentially endanger medication safety and developed strategies to eliminate these problems.

RESULTS:

Responsible officers were assigned to look after seven error-prone areas. Strategies were proposed, discussed, endorsed and promulgated to eliminate the problems identified. A reduction of medication incidents (MI) from 16 to 6 was achieved before and after the improvement work.

CONCLUSION:

This project successfully established a concrete organizational structure to safeguard error-prone areas of medication safety in a sustainable manner.

Identifying systems failures in the pathway to a catastrophic event: an analysis of national incident report data relating to vinca alkaloids

BACKGROUND

Catastrophic errors in healthcare are rare, yet the consequences are so serious that where possible, special procedures are put in place to prevent them. As systems become safer, it becomes progressively more difficult to detect the remaining vulnerabilities. Using inadvertent intrathecal administration of vinca alkaloids as an example, we investigated whether analysis of incident report data describing low-harm events could bridge this gap.

METHODS

We studied nine million patient safety incidents reported from England and Wales between November 2003 and May 2013. We searched for reports relating to administration of vinca alkaloids in patients also receiving intrathecal medication, and classified the failures identified against steps in the relevant national protocol.

RESULTS

Of 38 reports that met our inclusion criteria, none resulted in actual harm. The stage of the medication process most commonly involved was 'supply, transport and storage' (15 cases). Seven cases related to dispensing, six to documentation, and four each to prescribing and administration. Defences most commonly breached related to separation of intravenous vinca alkaloids and intrathecal medication in timing (n=16) and location (n=8); potential for confusion due to inadequate separation of these drugs therefore remains. Problems involved in six cases did not align with the procedural defences in place, some of which represented major hazards.

CONCLUSIONS

We identified areas of concern even within the context of a highly controlled standardised national process. If incident reporting systems include and encourage reports of no-harm incidents in addition to actual patient harm, they can facilitate monitoring the resilience of healthcare processes. Patient safety incidents that produce the most serious harm are often rare, and it is difficult to know whether patients are adequately protected. Our approach provides a potential solution.

E-prescribing errors in community pharmacies: exploring consequences and contributing factors

OBJECTIVE

To explore types of e-prescribing errors in community pharmacies and their potential consequences, as well as the factors that contribute to e-prescribing errors.

METHODS

Data collection involved performing 45 total hours of direct observations in five pharmacies. Follow-up interviews were conducted with 20 study participants. Transcripts from observations and interviews were subjected to content analysis using NVivo 10.

RESULTS

Pharmacy staff detected 75 e-prescription errors during the 45 h observation in pharmacies. The most common e-prescribing errors were wrong drug quantity, wrong dosing directions, wrong duration of therapy, and wrong dosage formulation. Participants estimated that 5 in 100 e-prescriptions have errors. Drug classes that were implicated in e-prescribing errors were antiinfectives, inhalers, ophthalmic, and topical agents. The potential consequences of e-prescribing errors included increased likelihood of the patient receiving incorrect drug therapy, poor disease management for patients, additional work for pharmacy personnel, increased cost for pharmacies and patients, and frustrations for patients and pharmacy staff. Factors that contribute to errors included: technology incompatibility between pharmacy and clinic systems, technology design issues such as use of auto-populate features and dropdown menus, and inadvertently entering incorrect information.

CONCLUSION

Study findings suggest that a wide range of e-prescribing errors is encountered in community pharmacies. Pharmacists and technicians perceive that causes of e-prescribing errors are multidisciplinary and multifactorial, that is to say e-prescribing errors can originate from technology used in prescriber offices and pharmacies.

Collaborative pharmaceutical care in an Irish hospital: uncontrolled before-after study

BACKGROUND

We investigated the benefits of the Collaborative Pharmaceutical Care in Tallaght Hospital (PACT) service versus standard ward-based clinical pharmacy in adult inpatients receiving acute medical care, particularly on prevalence of medication error and quality of prescribing.

METHODS

Uncontrolled before-after study, undertaken in consecutive adult medical inpatients admitted and discharged alive, using at least three medications. Standard care involved clinical pharmacists being ward-based, contributing to medication history taking and prescription review, but not involved at discharge. The innovative PACT intervention involved clinical pharmacists being team-based, leading admission and discharge medication reconciliation and undertaking prescription review. Primary outcome measures were prevalence per patient of medication error and potentially severe error. Secondary measures included quality of prescribing using the Medication Appropriateness Index (MAI) in patients aged ≥65 years.

FINDINGS

Some 233 patients (112 PACT, 121 standard) were included. PACT decreased the prevalence of any medication error at discharge (adjusted OR 0.07 (95% CI 0.03 to 0.15)); number needed to treat (NNT) 3 (95% CI 2 to 3) and no PACT patient experienced a potentially severe error (NNT 20, 95% CI 10 to 142). In patients aged ≥65 years (n=108), PACT improved the MAI score from preadmission to discharge (Mann-Whitney U p<0.05; PACT median -1, IQR -3.75 to 0; standard care median +1, IQR -1 to +6).

CONCLUSIONS

PACT, a collaborative model of pharmaceutical care involving medication reconciliation and review, delivered by clinical pharmacists and physicians, at admission, during inpatient care and at discharge was protective against potentially severe medication errors in acute medical patients and improved the quality of prescribing in older patients.

A multi-disciplinary approach to medication safety and the implication for nursing education and practice

BACKGROUND

Medication management is a complex multi-stage and multi-disciplinary process, involving doctors, pharmacists, nurses and patients. Errors can occur at any stage from prescribing, dispensing and administering, to recording and reporting. There are a number of safety mechanisms built into the medication management system and it is recognised that nurses are the final stage of defence. However, medication error still remains a major challenge to patient safety globally.

OBJECTIVES

This paper aims to illustrate two main aspects of medication safety practices that have been elicited from an action research study in a Scottish Health Board and three local Higher Education Institutions: firstly current medication safety practices in two clinical settings; and secondly pre and post-registration nursing education and teaching on medication safety.

METHOD

This paper is based on Phase One and Two of an Action Research project. An ethnography-style observational method, influenced by an Appreciative Inquiry (AI) approach was adapted to study the everyday medication management systems and practices of two hospital wards. This was supplemented by seven in-depth interviews with nursing staff, numerous informal discussions with healthcare professionals, two focus-groups, one peer-interview and two in-depth individual interviews with final year nursing students from three Higher Education Institutions in Scotland.

RESULT

This paper highlights the current positive practical efforts in medication safety practices in the chosen clinical areas. Nursing staff do employ the traditional 'five right' principles - right patient, right medication, right dose, right route and right time - for safe administration. Nursing students are taught these principles in their pre-registration nursing education. However, there are some other challenges remaining: these include the establishment of a complete medication history (reconciliation) when patients come to hospital, the provision of an in-depth training in pharmacological knowledge to junior nursing staff and pre-registration nursing students.

CONCLUSION

This paper argues that the 'five rights' principle during medication administration is not enough for holistic medication safety and explains two reasons why there is a need for strengthened multi-disciplinary team-work to achieve greater patient safety. To accomplish this, nurses need to have sufficient knowledge of pharmacology and medication safety issues. These findings have important educational implications and point to the requirement for the incorporation of medication management and pharmacology in to the teaching curriculum for nursing students. There is also a call for continuing professional development opportunities for nurses working in clinical settings.

[Structured medication management in primary care - a tool to promote medication safety]

Patients with chronic disease usually need to take multiple medications. Drug-related interactions, adverse events, suboptimal adherence, and self-medication are components that can affect medication safety and lead to serious consequences for the patient. At present, regular medication reviews to check what medicines have been prescribed and what medicines are actually taken by the patient or the structured evaluation of drug-related problems rarely take place in Germany. The process of "medication reconciliation" or "medication review" as developed in the USA and the UK aim at increasing medication safety and therefore represent an instrument of quality assurance. Within the HeiCare(®) project a structured medication management was developed for general practice, with medical assistants playing a major role in the implementation of the process. Both the structured medication management and the tools developed for the medication check and medication counselling will be outlined in this article; also, findings on feasibility and acceptance in various projects and experiences from a total of 200 general practices (56 HeiCare(®), 29 HiCMan,115 PraCMan) will be described. The results were obtained from questionnaires and focus group discussions. The implementation of a structured medication management intervention into daily routine was seen as a challenge. Due to the high relevance of medication reconciliation for daily clinical practice, however, the checklists - once implemented successfully - have been applied even after the end of the project. They have led to the regular review and reconciliation of the physicians' documentation of the medicines prescribed (medication chart) with the medicines actually taken by the patient.

The effect of a clinical pharmacist-led training programme on intravenous medication errors: a controlled before and after study

BACKGROUND

Little is known about interventions to reduce intravenous medication administration errors in hospitals, especially in low- and middle-income countries.

OBJECTIVE

To assess the effect of a clinical pharmacist-led training programme on clinically relevant errors during intravenous medication preparation and administration in a Vietnamese hospital.

METHODS

A controlled before and after study with baseline and follow-up measurements was conducted in an intensive care unit (ICU) and a post-surgical unit (PSU). The intervention comprised lectures, practical ward-based teaching sessions and protocols/guidelines, and was conducted by a clinical pharmacist and a nurse. Data on intravenous medication preparation and administration errors were collected by direct observation 12 h/day for seven consecutive days. Generalised estimating equations (GEE) were used to assess the effect of the intervention on the prevalence of clinically relevant erroneous doses, corrected for confounding factors.

RESULTS

1204 intravenous doses were included, 516 during the baseline period (236 on ICU and 280 on PSU) and 688 during the follow-up period (407 on ICU and 281 on PSU). The prevalence of clinically relevant erroneous doses decreased significantly on the intervention ward (ICU) from 64.0% to 48.9% (p<0.001) but was unchanged on the control ward (PSU) (57.9% vs 64.1%; p=0.132). GEE analysis showed that doses on the intervention ward were 2.60 (1.27-5.31) times less likely to have clinically relevant errors (p=0.013).

CONCLUSIONS

The pharmacist-led training programme was effective, but the error rate remained relatively high. Further quality improvement strategies are needed, including changes to the working environment and promotion of a safety culture.

Safeguarding older adults from inappropriate over-the-counter medications: the role of community pharmacists

PURPOSE OF THE STUDY

To elicit the thought process or mental model that community pharmacists use when making recommendations on over-the-counter (OTC) medications to older adults and to elicit the current practices of community pharmacists in providing information, advice, and counseling to older adults about potentially inappropriate OTC medications.

DESIGN AND METHODS

Three separate focus groups with pharmacists were conducted with 5 to 8 pharmacists per group. A vignette about an elderly woman seeking an OTC sleep aid was used to elicit information that pharmacists seek to establish when making a recommendation. Focus groups were recorded, transcribed verbatim, and analyzed for themes using the initial and focused coding methods of grounded theory.

RESULTS

Community pharmacists' mental models were characterized by 2 similarities: a similarity in what community pharmacists seek to establish about patients and a similarity in when community pharmacists seek to establish it--the sequence in which they try to learn key details about patients. It was identified that pharmacists gather specific information about the patient's medication profile, health conditions, characteristics of the problem, and past treatments in order to make a recommendation. Community pharmacists recommended behavioral modifications and seeing their physician prior to recommending an OTC sleep aid, primarily due to medication safety concerns.

IMPLICATIONS

Pharmacists can play a key role in assisting older adults to select and use OTC medications.

Pediatric emergency nurses' self-reported medication safety practices

Preventable adverse events occur more frequently in areas such as the emergency department with medication errors as the most frequently reported errors. A cross-sectional survey design was used to gather descriptive data of medication safety practices used by pediatric emergency nurses in the Midwest U.S. Participants completed an anonymous survey to identify nurses' understanding, implementation, and barriers to implementing the National Patient Safety Goals (NPSGs) for medication safety. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics. Participants identified several barriers to adopting and implementing the NPSGs. Additional interventions are needed to reduce the barriers to medication safety practices for pediatric emergency nurses.

Classification of medication incidents associated with information technology

INTRODUCTION

Information technology (IT) plays a pivotal role in improving patient safety, but can also cause new problems for patient safety. This study analyzed the nature and consequences of a large sample of IT-related medication incidents, as reported by healthcare professionals in community pharmacies and hospitals.

METHODS

The medication incidents submitted to the Dutch central medication incidents registration (CMR) reporting system were analyzed from the perspective of the healthcare professional with the Magrabi classification. During classification new terms were added, if necessary.

MAIN MEASURES

The principal source of the IT-related problem, nature of error. Additional measures: consequences of incidents, IT systems, phases of the medication process.

RESULTS

From March 2010 to February 2011 the CMR received 4161 incidents: 1643 (39.5%) from community pharmacies and 2518 (60.5%) from hospitals. Eventually one of six incidents (16.1%, n=668) were related to IT; in community pharmacies more incidents (21.5%, n=351) were related to IT than in hospitals (12.6%, n=317). In community pharmacies 41.0% (n=150) of the incidents were about choosing the wrong medicine. Most of the erroneous exchanges were associated with confusion of medicine names and poor design of screens. In hospitals 55.3% (n=187) of incidents concerned human-machine interaction-related input during the use of computerized prescriber order entry. These use problems were also a major problem in pharmacy information systems outside the hospital.

CONCLUSIONS

A large sample of incidents shows that many of the incidents are related to IT, both in community pharmacies and hospitals. The interaction between human and machine plays a pivotal role in IT incidents in both settings.

Are interventions to reduce interruptions and errors during medication administration effective?: a systematic review

Background

Medication administration errors are frequent and lead to patient harm. Interruptions during medication administration have been implicated as a potential contributory factor.

Objective

To assess evidence of the effectiveness of interventions aimed at reducing interruptions during medication administration on interruption and medication administration error rates.

Methods

In September 2012 we searched MEDLINE, EMBASE, CINAHL, PsycINFO, Cochrane Effective Practice and Organisation of Care Group reviews, Google and Google Scholar, and hand searched references of included articles. Intervention studies reporting quantitative data based on direct observations of at least one outcome (interruptions, or medication administration errors) were included.

Results

Ten studies, eight from North America and two from Europe, met the inclusion criteria. Five measured significant changes in interruption rates pre and post interventions. Four found a significant reduction and one an increase. Three studies measured changes in medication administration error rates and showed reductions, but all implemented multiple interventions beyond those targeted at reducing interruptions. No study used a controlled design pre and post. Definitions for key outcome indicators were reported in only four studies. Only one study reported κ scores for inter-rater reliability and none of the multi-ward studies accounted for clustering in their analyses.

Conclusions

There is weak evidence of the effectiveness of interventions to significantly reduce interruption rates and very limited evidence of their effectiveness to reduce medication administration errors. Policy makers should proceed with great caution in implementing such interventions until controlled trials confirm their value. Research is also required to better understand the complex relationship between interruptions and error to support intervention design.

An RFID solution for enhancing inpatient medication safety with real-time verifiable grouping-proof

PURPOSE

The occurrence of a medication error can threaten patient safety. The medication administration process is complex and cumbersome, and nursing staffs are prone to error when they are tired. Proper Information Technology (IT) can assist the nurse in correct medication administration.

METHOD

We review a recent proposal regarding a leading-edge solution to enhance inpatient medication safety by using RFID technology. The proof mechanism is the kernel concept in their design and worth studying to develop a well-designed grouping-proof scheme. Other RFID grouping-proof protocols could be similarly applied in administering physician orders. We improve on the weaknesses of previous works and develop a reading-order independent RFID grouping-proof scheme in this paper.

RESULT

In our scheme, tags are queried and verified under the direct control of the authorized reader without connecting to the back-end database server. Immediate verification in our design makes this application more portable and efficient and critical security issues have been analyzed by the threat model.

CONCLUSION

Our scheme is suitable for the safe drug administration scenario and the drug package scenario in a hospital environment to enhance inpatient medication safety. It automatically checks for correct drug unit-dose and appropriate inpatient treatments.