3 Strategies for Preventing Medication Errors

Focusing on Prevention

Regardless of your individual “why” for leading in this line of work, at the root is a common desire to ensure the health and safety of the people we support.  They say that to err is human, however, that feeling you get in the pit of your stomach when you are reviewing or writing a special incident report for something you know could have been prevented gives new meaning to this saying.  Let’s talk about preventing medication errors. 

A medication error is commonly defined as a preventable event that may cause or lead to inappropriate medication use or “patient” harm while the medication is in the control of the “professional, patient, or consumer”.  Let’s focus on prevention with the following strategies:

Training

It will come as no surprise that training is the foundation for preventing medication errors. Offer informative and engaging training to new staff during orientation and have ongoing training opportunities throughout the employment journey.  Key areas to focus on include your medication-related policy and the “rights” of medication administration.

It is especially important to communicate to staff to slow down as many med errors can be attributed to haste, lack of attention to the immediate task, and being distracted.  Labor market conditions and the increased turnover of staff have made this critical pillar more challenging to cement. Having an effective way to track that training is provided is important and one where attendees can see their own progress in their training journey brings higher engagement which leads to improved retention.

Access to Clear Information Instantaneously

Mistakes from illegible handwriting, paper logs in a person’s home that were not updated, and relying on memory; are bygones of the pre-digital world. Readily accessible electronic health and medication information reduces errors.  For example, staff can verify the “rights” of medication administration, even on the go.  Allergies should be easily seen so they can be checked against a new prescription.  Staff should be able to quickly check if medications have been administered at shift change, especially important in PRN or as-needed medications.

Systems and Structure

Human errors are best managed by analyzing and improving procedures.  Standardizing systems and providing a solid simple structure for staff lead to improved metrics in every performance area, but especially in health and medication management.  Areas to develop structured systems for health management include medical appointments and medication administration, personal care needs and pertinent training required, emergency and disaster response, medical-related incident reporting, and medical-related goal tracking. 

Specific to medication administration, even though the training is provided, the best-intended staff still make mistakes.  It is time to embrace technology; digital systems such as medication management software can solve many of the systemic and informational issues that result in errors.  Specifically, having an electronic alert system in place that not only reminds the responsible staff of medication administration procedures and times but also has a backup system in place if the medication is not acknowledged as given within the standard two-hour window.  Accountability to a set structure is instrumental in helping staff reflect on what may have contributed to the error.  This data can then be analyzed for trends and insights gathered will lead to enhanced training and system reform.  If you are interested in learning more about QSP’s solution for medication management, click here. 

Reference: National Coordinating Council for Medication Error Reporting and Prevention (2012)