The verifying pharmacist reviewed orders for newly admitted patients from the emergency room. Since the staff pharmacists have been with MVH for such a long time, they have acquired clinical responsibilities and dose medications as well.
Since I work in the retail setting, I was unfamiliar with the standard procedure of operations in the hospital. I learned that doctors placed orders, which then the pharmacists sometimes have to electronically enter into a system called EPIC. Often, orders are already entered by nurses into EPIC, so the pharmacists would check the order by reviewing the name of the medication, dosage, frequency, and administration route, such as intravenously, intramuscularly, or subcutaneously or intravenous push.
The system
rights, health, and safety of the patient.” This provision, identifying patients, medication safety are related because it is a nurse’s responsibility to protect the patient from harm and promote safety. Nurses are taught to use multiple checks before administering a drug and use two identifiers. These checks include checking the medication against the order when obtaining it, checking again when preparing the medication and the last check is done at the patient’s bedside prior to giving the medication. Also it is imperative to question any medication order that does not seem fit. The order should include a date, time, name of the medication, dosage strength, the route for
The news segment regarding the breach of duty by members of an Ohio pharmacy was rather informative. It is quite clear the healthcare provider(s) present at the time did not fulfill their responsibility of utilizing the PPCP wheel. The situation was distinctly an error in dispensing which put the patient’s health at risk. Breakdowns in the wheel can be identified in all the areas. Regarding efficient communication, a dialogue between the pharmacist and the patient about the medication being prescribed, as well as its intended purpose did not occur. The patient unknowingly took the wrong medication for months. Had they taken a moment to collect the necessary information, via the 3 prime questions, the mistake could have been found and resolved right away. The patient knew what medication her doctor was supposed to have prescribed for
High Alllert Medications (HAMs) are a special class of drugs that are highly risky and capable of causing harm even under proper use. Consequently, they necessitate the need for Independent Double-Checks (IDC). As such, the nurse verifies the dosage, drug, and route to match the directives of the physician as well as pharmacological requirements (Galbraith et al., 2015). Such drugs include sedatives, opioids, insulin and anticoagulants. IDC minimizes errors asserted to drug name confusion such as heparin/Hespan; lack of knowledge, and confusion from interruption or fatigue. My colleagues implement IDC in spite of the constraints experienced. However, some rare incidences of workarounds occur during weekends or emergencies when no verifier is
frameworks have turned out to be progressively normal in the inpatient setting as a procedure to
Chapter five discusses computerized provider order entry (CPOE). CPOE systems allow health care organizations access to tools that enhance the efficiency and delivery of patient care. While CPOE technology has proved beneficial, it is not deprived of challenges. The article that I selected to review, “Hospitals’ Computerized Systems Proven to Prevent Medication Errors, but More is Needed to Protect Patients from Harm or Death” (TheLeapfrogGroup, 2016) discusses how medication errors still occur despite the implementation of this technology.
A pharmacist must check any medication that is administered to a patient. This is the
For this union to be successful it is very important that all professionals who work in it are safe and all the established regulations are safety guidelines are been followed and the service you provide is one safe and of quality. “Entry of an order into a clinical information or order entry system alerts all departments to carry out orders” (Hebda & Czar, 2013, p.119). One alternative that is used to achieve this goal is to use the order entry system, this system ensures that the medical orders are taken as indicated and minimizing errors in medication administration and avoiding the delay in carrying out some studies. The system alerts if an order is been duplicated preventing the administration of drugs that might endanger the patient's
The process requires that individual resident medication list should be created prior to providing medical or nursing care. This involves accurate medications the residents are taking that include the medication name, route, dosage, and frequency to be administered. The steps for medication reconciliation process include, patient medication history validation, clarification that the ordered medication is suitable for that patient and resolution for any variation with the medication. The outcome measure of medication reconciliation processes are reduction in medication administration errors and patient safety (Whittich, Burkle, & Lanier,
Set-up and workflow of my pharmacy is pretty good for patient centered care. Patient does not have to wait too long for their prescriptions to be filled. Patients can call for their refills via telephone or online, which makes their life easy as they don’t have bother coming in-person for refills. Patient profile shows all medication history as well as number of refills remaining. This makes it easy for pharmacist to know whether to refill a prescription or call doctor for refill request. After confirming to fill a prescription pharmacist runs claim through insurance and print label after claim is successful. All medication is arranged alphabetically on shelves, thus it is easy and quick to retrieve. Then after technician fills medication and then pharmacist checks it. This workflow is quite smooth and quick to process. Final check is done by pharmacist, who confirms right medication for right patient as well as the NDC dispensed, amount dispensed, direction for use, and day supply. All these steps of process take place on working table in sequential order, which helps to reduce errors in filling and have effective prescription filling. Once the prescription is filled pharmacist do all paper
According to the Beth Lofgren’s article “Pharmacists Prepared to Implement MTM,” patients medicinal needs have been neglected. This negligence is often the result of primary care physicians’ or hospital physicians’ “continue without a second look” approach. Several patients are admitted to the hospital carrying a bag or a list of medications that they take at home; however, this list mostly remains unaltered after leaving the hospital. Physicians simply write for their patients to continue all medications, which can cause an increase in the duration of hospital visits, duplication in therapy, and medication interactions between home and hospital medications. Pharmacists, being the medication experts within the health care field, frequently intervene; however, with the current setup with distribution and clinical pharmacy, this error in patients’ medication needs slips through the cracks, thereby, causing the hospital to lose money and the patient receiving inadequate care. Pharmacists have adopted a way to reduce cost and improve patient care.
As computer and technology use in hospitals, clinics and private practice expands, information technology is being used in innumerous ways to improve healthcare services, patient safety, and the relationships between patients and healthcare providers. One of the modern techniques that have been helping in minimizing the confusion in prescribing medication is computerized provider order entry (CPOE). Before, handwritten prescription might create errors related to poor handwriting or transcription of medication orders. To minimize those errors and maximize the patient satisfaction, CPOE was designed to help providers directly place orders electronically which will be transmitted to its designated destination. Traditionally, the process of prescribing
Since the implementation of Computerized Provider Order Entry (CPOE), it has brought numerous benefits in terms of patient safety, such as avoiding misinterpretation of ordered medications and treatment due to illegible handwriting of the providers. The CPOE system offered convenience to providers by being able to enter medical orders from any computers anywhere in the hospital or at home. Prior to CPOE, the provider has to physically visit the medical unit or floor where the patient is admitted in order to write an order for the patient. Unfortunately, this convenience has its downside. Some providers skip the face to face interaction with the patient, just reviewed the patient’s medical information from the computer and proceeded to enter
When I say this, however, most people would picture the nurse giving the wrong medication due to lack of focus on the tasks at hand. While this could happen, I have noticed during my time at hospitals that the doctor orders are still hand written for the most part. Consequently, they can be very hard to be read legibly much less correctly translated into proper medication dosages. The first suggestion I would give to an organization would be that they required all orders to be submitted securely, by the doctors, to the pharmacy be electronic means.
The practitioner needs to be familiar with prescription drop off it means that they have to consider having checklist of critical patient information that the technician will obtain from each patient.Order entry is important when you’re a practitioner because you need to know medical/pharmacy terminology and drug names because that will help you to do your job but you need to be careful with the new drugs because they are a risk for technicians. Practitioners need to pay attention filling/ and dispensing many mix-ups happen when the practitioner read the label incorrectly, they should be very vigilant about drugs with lookalike labels and packaging, separating these drugs can help to reduce errors. Point of sale is very significant for practitioners, because with a correctly filled prescription errors may occur if it gives to a patient it was not intended, reviewing prescription with patient or caregiver is the best check for point of
In many healthcare settings, a paper Medication Administration Record (MAR) is still being utilized. Physician orders, both written and oral, must be transcribed from one piece of paper to another piece of paper. This process is often passed through several people before being placed in the patient’s chart. The paper MAR leaves a large margin for error as a result of unclear or illegible orders being transferred from physician to nurse to pharmacy and back. There is clearly a greater risk of drug interactions and double dosing with paper MARs compared to the electronic systems that are now available (Ketchum, 2008). In addition, paper flow sheets, MARs, and physician orders are capable of being misplaced, ruined, or wrongly recorded. This lack of communication and time-consuming paperwork leads to unsafe nursing practice. It also increases the potential for medication errors, ultimately causing harm to patients.