Reducing Medication Errors
Medication errors are said to affect at least 1.5 million Canadians per year. According to the Canadian Institute for Health Information, one in 10 patients receives the wrong medication or the wrong dose while in hospital.
"Those are troubling statistics," says Glenda Hawthorne, Regional Manager, Clinical Affairs, for Alberta Health Services in Medicine Hat, and a participant in SEARCH VI. As a nurse, I wondered how much the administration of medication is a factor in these errors. A few years ago, we had revised our system of medication delivery in inpatient acute care units. The time was right for an evaluation to see how our present system of medication administration measured up to best practices."
From her literature review, Hawthorne found that a decentralized method of medication administration is the current best practice. In a decentralized system, medications are stored in locked cupboards in individual patient rooms. This is quite different from a centralized system where medications are dispensed in a medication room, placed onto a cart and then wheeled to patient rooms.
"The evidence shows that the decentralized system significantly decreases the incidence of medication errors and increases staff efficiency, as compared to using medication carts," says Hawthorne, who has presented her findings to management and staff.
"Changing to a decentralized system is a complex undertaking and may not be feasible at this time. However, there are learnings that can be taken from this research and it has definitely been worthwhile to look at best practices. The SEARCH experience has been invaluable to me. It's been a privilege to participate."