A couple of articles on medication errors worth reading

The entire June issue of the British Journal of Clinical Pharmacology (BJCP)  is dedicated to medication errors. It’s worth your time to browse all the articles, but the two below were of particular interest to me. Agrawal A. Medication errors: prevention using information technology systems. British Journal of Clinical Pharmacology. 2009 ;67(6):681-686. The article covers … Read more

The use of speed bumps in healthcare

speed_bumpsOne day last week I was driving home and happened by a school that doubles as a community swimming pool in the summer. The street had several large speed bumps, forcing me to move rather slowly. I’m usually irritated by speed bumps because they slow me down. This day, however, I was happy they were there because a little boy darted out in front of me. I drive a ¾ ton Ford f250 crew cab pick-up. It’s big and heavy. I have serious doubts that a child would stand much of a chance if they went head-to-head with my truck. Fortunately I was coasting along at a safe 10 MPH secondary to the speed bumps and easily came to a stop at a comfortable distance away. At that moment I was thankful for the safety feature built into the pavement on the road, i.e. the speed bumps.

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Is patient safety recession-proof?

AMNews: “Protecting patients from harm is medicine’s bedrock goal, but the resources required to do so have never come cheaply. With the recession taking its toll on the health sector, doctors and other medical professionals who have tackled problems ranging from hospital-acquired infections to patient falls find their efforts increasingly scrutinized on dollars-and-cents grounds. Ninety percent … Read more

“Ten percent” rule for meaningful use on CPOE is weak!

Idon’t usually feel compelled to comment on healthcare policy, but something I read recently has me a little miffed. The Meaningful Use Work Group of the ONC’s HIT Policy Committee recommended that 10 percent of orders be entered via CPOE to meet criteria for funding in 2011. Since when is ten percent considered successful. I’ve been through many years of schooling; I’m a veteran pharmacist of more than ten years “in the trenches” and have now been involved with many technology projects in my relatively new role as an IT pharmacist. Never has ten percent of anything been considered acceptable. Try telling your boss you’re only going to give ten percent. Note the reaction on his/her face.

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Possible restriction on acetaminophen dosing

Medscape.com: “The FDA should put new restrictions on acetaminophen, an advisory committee recommended Tuesday, saying the move would protect people from the potential toxicity that can cause liver failure and even death.” – Acetaminophen (a.k.a. Tylenol) is a very safe medication. According to the article “billions of doses of acetaminophen are used safely every year.” … Read more

NQF calls for pharmacists to take greater role in patient safety

HealthLeadersMedia.com: “Literature shows that when pharmacists are involved in care, the result is improved patient care, fewer adverse events, and reduced costs,” said Andrawis, speaking about Safe Practice 18. “But, in order for that full benefit to be realized, it’s really important that those pharmacists be given appropriate authority, and consequently that they continue to … Read more

The patient centered medical home and pharmacy

From the Pharmacy Technology Resources (PTR) blog: “Patient Centered Medical Home” (PCMH) – is likely to be the best opportunity for aligning physician and patient frustration, demonstrated models for improving care, and private and public payment systems to produce the most profound transformation of the health care system this far. Wait a second – what … Read more

Beyond technology – nurse/pharmacist collaboration for patient safety

Advanceweb.com via SafetyNurse on Twitter: “Pharmacists and nurses are essential professionals entrusted with medication safety. However, the medication delivery and other resources provided by pharmacy are not always well received by nursing, and vice versa. Nurses complain medications are not delivered on time. Gurses and Carayon (2007) noted that delays in getting medications from pharmacy as … Read more

Insight into poor handwriting and why EHRs are important.

Florence dot com: “1. People who prescribe medications should use a system more sophisticated than the pine straw delivery guy’s [pen and paper] to communicate high-stakes drug information. 1,400 commonly prescribed drugs have names that look-alike or sound-alike. People can, and do, die when drug names are confused with one another.

2. Pharmacies should be able to receive prescription data in a format that does not require the tenacity of a middle-school math teacher on summer holiday to decipher.

3. Your electronic medication history–housed with your physicians, pharmacy, and any consumer portal you choose–should move seamlessly into hospital data repositories and be accessible, with your consent, during planned and emergent encounters.”

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