...Flowchart for Inpatient Medication Administration Name: Institutional Affiliation: Flowchart for Inpatient Medication Administration Introduction The medication administration process has a direct impact on the patient’s health and well-being. The evaluation of the medication administration workflow is crucial to ensure that the right procedure is utilized to offer quality care. The proper design of the process makes sure that there is provision of safe, efficient, prompt, and patient-centered care. Also, there is the elimination of cases of medication administration errors in hospitals through the appropriate workflow design. The application of technological elements in the process with proper integration serves to enhance...
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...Nurses are the fine line between medication administration errors and medication administration error prevention. Nurses should be required to go above and beyond to avoid medication errors for the safety of the patient. This paper includes studies on the nurses knowledge, adherence and opinions on two-nurse double-check method for medication administration. The research concludes the evidence proved to be insignificant. Keywords: time management, medication errors, patient safety, double-check medication administration THE LINK BETWEEN INDEPENDENT DOUBLE CHECK AND PATIENT SAFETY Introduction The risk of medication errors will always exist, despite the many methods of preventing medication administration errors. The steps of the medication administration process are vital for patient safety. Unfortunately due to the lack of nurses in hospitals, nurses tend to skip steps of safe medication administration because of patient load and the time required to perform the steps. Are double checks essential in preventing medication errors? A diabetic patient on the medical-surgical floor needs the...
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...errors that can occur is medication errors. In fact, “preventable medication errors were responsible for 7000 deaths per year, and it is estimated that 3 to 6.9% of hospitalized patients experience a medication error” (Lilley, Collins, & Snyder, 2017, p. 63). It is important to understand the complexity of the medication administration process because medication errors seriously affect patient safety and can even cause death. The process of medication administration is complex and leaves significant room for error. The process starts with the provider giving the order for a certain medication. The provider or nurse must enter the order into the computer system correctly. The...
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...“One-third of all medication errors causing harm to hospitalized patients occur in the medication preparation and administration phase… (Smeulers, Verweij, Maaskant, Boer, Krediet, Nieveen van Dijkum & Vermeulen, 2015). Even though medication administration safety measures have been applied as healthcare continues to grow, there are still errors made. Safety measures have been implemented over the years in attempt to be thoroughly safe as one can be. However, administration of medications is still a target point for health care errors, as the nurse still must critically think before administering a medication to a patient. Using the Donabedian Model, structure is the first level to be examined to seek improvement in medication administration safety. Some examples of the structure level are facility, equipment, and staff and their qualifications (Shi & Singh, 2015). When discussing medication...
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... Final Project N311 Dr.Peggy Shipley Shannon McKnight 6/14/2014 2. Introduction According to the Institute of Medicine there are more than a million injuries and almost 100,000 deaths associated with medication administration errors every year in the healthcare profession. Administration of medication is a large part of every day nursing care. As the patient’s primary advocates, it is the nurse’s responsibility to make certain these medication errors do not occur and to uphold the patient’s safety. Hebda & Czar (2013) state, “The desire to reduce or eliminate medication errors focuses attention on computerized physician order entry (CPOE), Bar Code Medication Administration (BCMA), and e-prescribing”. With the growing amount of medication errors, many institutions are introducing the Bar Code Medication Administration System. This is a system that will aid in assuring the right patient is getting the right medication and reduce the risk for medication errors. Although BCMA will not be a remedy for medication errors, it can provide a safeguard that is not possible with manual method. The implementation of the Bar Code Medication Administration system has been highly proven reduce the number of medication errors, improve patient safety, and increase the nurse’s job satisfaction. 3. Barrier to the Implementation Understanding the barriers to change is one of the...
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...Abstract An electronic bar code medication administration was a system developed and successfully implemented in a 118-bed Veterans Administration hospital in February 2000. Known as Barcode Medication Administration (BCMA), this software proved useful in generating fast and accurate medication administration as well as online patient medication records preservation. The application created by the Eastern Kansas Health Care System in association with Colmery-O’Neil VA Medical Center has been modified a number of times to meet the general requirements in all U.S. Veterans Health Administration medical centers. The implementation of Barcode Medication Administration software has enabled electronic bedside administration of medication of medications. Online Barcode technology is revolutionizing medication administration more aspects than originally thought, and is such a blessing to the business industry in terms of cost cutting. To be honest, the force driving the momentum in the adoption of the new systems has been majorly based on financial, rather than safety concerns. The fee for- service compensation systems has done exceedingly well in increasing revenue to hospitals resulting from additional technology-related charges levied on patients for each dose dispensed (Cohen, 2002). From the evidences adduced in this research, bar code technology seems to hold great promise for general improvements in medication safety and efficiency. Nevertheless, evidence so far is limited...
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...A Nurses Role in Medication Safety and Prevention of Errors In today's world, drugs have a variety of uses. Aside from prescription medications, vaccines, oxygen, and over the counter products are drugs that we see every day. Seeing that nurses are frequently passing medications to patients, it is essential that we develop a system to do so safely and effectively. The medication administration process incorporates multiple thorough checks on its own, including checking the patient's allergies, verifying multiple patient identifiers, and completing focused assessments. Many high alert medications such as narcotics and insulin require a certain protocol of their own, such as sedation scales and intense monitoring. Effective medication safety...
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...instill ointment? Providing patients and care givers with information regarding administration of both ophthalmic drops and ointment it imperative to ensuring the appropriate dose of medication is received, proper hygiene is utilized and the medication is administered safely to prevent injury. First, individuals must be informed to follow the administration of either form of medication as prescribed and to administer the appropriate number of drops or size of ribbon of the ointment and ensure the patient is knowledgeable of the medication (Shaw, 2016). Next, instructing the individual in regards to appropriate...
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...Medication Safety Patient safety is the first priority concern for leadership in all health care organizations. The medication delivery process is the most common intervention in health care system. For that reason medication safety is considered the most challenging and complex process in improving patient care and safety during hospitalization. Medication-related errors are serious and occur at a rate of about one per patient per day (Allan, 1990). It is a harmful practice affecting patient’s health and life. Some of these errors may result in death or inefficiency of organs functions. In addition, medication errors may financially affect the health care organization due to long patient stay in the hospital for advanced treatment (Presto, 2004). This research paper will provide highlights on medication errors definition, importance of safety during medication process, factors contributing to medication errors and effective factors in preventing medication errors. Medication errors were defined as a fault in medication that may occur at any stage of the process in ordering or delivering medications (Bates, Boyle, Vliet, Scheider & Leape, 1995), either an injury occurred or the potential for injury was present (Bates et al, 1999). These errors could occur in dosing error, which is common (Lesar, Briceland & Stein, 1997), or wrong route, or wrong time, or error in medicine rate and omission error (O’Shea, 1998). Also there are some situations such as missing a dose of...
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...Increasing Nursing Compliance with Safe Medication Preparation and Administration Marie Shelly Capstone Course Increasing Nursing Compliance with Safe Medication Preparation and Administration The importance of safe medication preparation and administration in healthcare settings is being increasingly recognized. There have been numerous publications describing the transmission of bloodborne pathogens, viruses, and bacteria related to unsafe injection practices. The current field of nursing requires concerned parties to exercise a critical appraisal of research findings, and, establish a synthesis of contextual and empirical evidence that is relevant. However, practitioners have not established better alternatives regarding their practice. In addition, the essential evidence-based methods and critical skills in thinking are still lacking; yet they are ideal for the maximization of the cost-effectiveness and quality of health care (Camiletti, & Huffman, 1998). The Center for Disease Control reported that between 1998 and 2008 a total of 33 outbreaks of patient to patient transmission of HBV or HCV due to breaches of infection control by health care personal (http://www.cdc.gov/injectionsafety/CDCsRole.html1). More than 60,000 patients were at risk and 448 patients acquired with HBV or HCV. The disease transmission was primarily from lapses in aseptic technique, the reuse of syringes and contamination of medications that were multi-dose vials. In 2001(Luby, 2001) The World...
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...decrease the chances of a reoccurrence of the sentinel event that happened to Mr. B. in the scenario. Root Cause Analysis A root cause analysis, is a system that is used to develop a plan that will identifying the causative factors of an adverse event and formulate a plan to decrease the occurrence or chances of a sentinel event. A team consisting of , a member of the hospital administration, a pharmacist, a respiratory therapist, a charge nurse or nurse manager, a physician, and a member of the family board should be brought together to perform a root cause analysis in this case. These team members would have a meeting to discuss the factors that led to Mr. B’s sentinel event. The first step would be for the team to begin interviewing the staff involved with the case to gather as much data as possible. The data that would be needed include, Mr. B’s vital signs, laboratory results, pain scores, a history of medication that he was given during his time in the emergency room in addition to any home medications, and the monitoring that was performed by the nursing staff after he received the medication. Some causative factors that could have led to Mr. B’s sentinel event are, his tolerance to opiates, his clinical condition, the lack of...
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...Implementing Barcode Medication Administration in Hospitals Part Three Creating Change in Organizations/HCS587 April 1, 2013 Dr. Sonnia Oliva Change needs to be evaluated after implementation to determine its effectiveness. The organization and management need to continually monitor BCMA to make sure the organization is benefiting from it and to modify components if necessary. Outcome measurement strategies for BCMA are not conclusive but single studies show its positive impact on patient safety. Additionally, cost, quality, and staff satisfaction are important when determining the effectiveness of BCMA and they all support the use of BCMA as technology that increases patient safety. Effectiveness of Organizational Change Organizations evaluate the effectiveness of change after it is implemented to determine if the change is valuable or costly. Effectiveness of BCMA also needs to be determined to ascertain its ability to increase patient safety by decreasing medication errors. Empirical data on BCMA’s effectiveness is limited and data is also inconclusive. Although, data collection conducted by the Veteran Health Administration (VHA) was used to offer suggestions for improved effectiveness. From 1999 to 2003 data was collected by VHA on the barriers that was making BCMA less effective. Laboratory use, nursing informatics, and interviews were used to determine suggestions VHA would recommend to improve BCMA’s effectiveness. The data was given to the VHA’s...
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...Medication Bar Code Scanning Bar Code Medication Administration (BCMA) system is a bar code system that was designed to prevent errors in medication administration, save time, give timely feedback, and improve patient safety in the health care field. Not only are these goals of the bar code medication scanning system, but it also improves accuracy and produces online records of the patient’s medication administration in their file (Weston & Roberts, 2013). The bar code scanning system has greatly impacted the medical field in many ways, especially nursing. In this paper, I will specifically be talking about how the bar code medication administration (BCMA) scanning system has impacted nursing, nursing care, and patient outcomes. I will...
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.... There are many factors that contribute to medication errors resulting in consequences to both patient and nurse. Factors that can contribute to errors include illegible handwritten drug orders, confusing drug names, and the use of nonstandard or unclear abbreviations (Neal, 2006). For the patient, the effect of drug errors can range from no side effects to death. For the nurse who commits a medication error the consequences can range from additional training and supervision to lawsuits and revocation of licensure. Medication errors can occur at any stage in the process of delivering medications to patients, from the originating prescriber to the pharmacy, but the majority of medication errors occur during administration. Adherence to established safety procedures by all healthcare professionals can help to reduce medication errors. Errors occurring during the administration process are likely due to one of the steps of the five rights of medication administration being omitted: the right patient, medication, dose, route, and time, with the most frequent errors resulting from omission, wrong dose, and wrong medication (Davidhizar & Lonzer, 2003). Factors that can exacerbate errors include problems with the drug distribution system, inadequate staffing levels, environmental factors (e.g., distraction), nurses working in unfamiliar units, and not following standard policy and procedure. According to Davidhizar and Lonzer (2003), the following strategies are useful in addressing...
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...that occur earlier in the medication process are more readily detected (~50% are prevented during the ordering stage) while very few (< 2%) are caught at the administration stage (bates et al., 1995). further, it has been noted that more than one third of medication errors occur at the latter stage (leape et al., 1995). because of the relatively high proportion of errors and the lack of success preventing them, error reduction strategies targeted at the administration stage High rates of preventable medication errors have been repeatedly reported in studies in the medical literature (Bates et al., 1995; Leape et al., 1995; Flynn et al., 2002; Kanjanarat et al., 2003). It is difficult, however, to cite a single number to define the extent of the medication error problem due to differences in institutions, study methodologies, error definitions, and other variables. On the high end of estimates, one study that compiled data from 36 institutions reported 19% (~1 in 5) of the medication doses studied over a 4-day period involved medication errors (Barker et al., 2002). These errors included wrong time (43%), omission (30%), wrong dose (17%), and unauthorized drug (4%). The number of these errors deemed potentially harmful adverse drug events (ADEs) was 7%. A comprehensive review of medication error studies cited in the Institute of Medicine (IOM) 2000 report on errors in the U.S. healthcare system suggests that preventable ADEs, i.e., harmful medication errors, occur in ~1% to 10%...
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