A proposed plan for this health organization will include implementing certain additional technologies, regularly training staff on medication safety, establishing an error-reporting system, and developing policies for medication safety. These strategies can help reduce the risk of errors by providing accurate and up-to-date medication information, facilitating better communication between prescribing physicians and pharmacists, reviewing and comparing a patient’s current medications with those prescribed at previous healthcare encounters, ensuring that staff has the necessary knowledge and skills to safely manage medications, establishing clear protocols for medication management, and identifying patterns and trends in medication errors to allow for targeted interventions (Mohanna et al., 2022).
Specific additional technologies required will be Computerized Physician Order entry (CPOE), BCMA, and automated dispensing cabinets. Impending these technologies would require roughly half a year owing to the lengthy process of procurement, budgetary approval, training staff on their usage, and engaging all stakeholders to evaluate outcomes. However, other strategies, such as continuous staff education, establishing error reporting systems, and policy development, could be completed in a month after stakeholder consultations.
Implementing the above plan would require human, technological, and financial resources. The organization already has healthcare professionals who can implement the plan. However, additional staff in the pharmacy and technology department would make this plan more feasible because it would reduce the workload on the existing human resources.
Identify existing organizational personnel and/or resources that would help improve the implementation or outcomes of the plan. The additional resources necessary would require an electronic health record (EHR) or a computerized method of managing patient information. The institution already has an EHR that can complement the BCMA, CPOE, and automated dispensing cabinets. Most importantly, financial resources would be critical in enhancing this improvement plan. Purchasing the additional technologies, implementing them, and compensating the involved personnel could require additional funds from the institution’s supplementary budget or outside sources.
Root-cause analysis is an essential method for identifying the primary causes of safety issues to prevent them from occurring again in the future. In this case, a root-cause analysis was conducted on an incident in a healthcare organization where a patient was given an incorrect medication dosage, leading to adverse effects requiring emergency care. The root cause of this incident was determined to be a mistake made by the pharmacist in reading the prescription and dispensing the wrong dosage of medication.
A safety improvement plan was developed to address this issue and prevent similar incidents from occurring in the future. This plan includes strategies such as implementing an electronic prescribing system, conducting medication reconciliation, providing ongoing education and training for staff, developing clear policies and procedures for medication management, and implementing a medication error reporting system. By implementing these strategies, healthcare organizations can improve patient safety and minimize the risk of preventable medication errors.
Afaya, A., Konlan, K. D., & Kim Do, H. (2021). Improving patient safety through identifying barriers to reporting medication administration errors among nurses: an integrative review. BMC Health Services Research, 21(1), 1156. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12913-021-07187-5
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