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Showing results for tags 'Medication'.
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Content ArticleHealthcare professionals were made aware of alerts and letters issued about adrenaline auto-injectors in September and October 2019 by the Medicines & Healthcare products Regulatory Agency. This article provides a summary of recent advice issued to healthcare professionals, including information to provide to patients, to support safe use of adrenaline auto-injectors.
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Content Article
Safe practices for drug allergies using CDS and health IT (2019)
Claire Cox posted an article in Allergies
The Partnership for Health IT Patient Safety, a national collaborative convened by ECRI Institute, has released a new report on drug allergy interactions and how clinical decision support (CDS) and health information technology (IT) can be used to improve safety. Drug allergy alerts, a feature of clinical decision support (CDS), incorporated within the electronic health record (EHR), act as a safeguard against prescribing or dispensing a medication to which a patient has a documented allergy that could cause an adverse event for a patient. Drug allergy interactions are an important patient safety concern. Inadequate communication and display of drug allergy interaction information may result in incorrect treatment, delay care, or result in additional or prolonged care for a patient. -
Content ArticleLast year, 63 healthcare professionals in England were found stealing controlled drugs and/or providing care whilst working under the influence of controlled drugs. By law, designated bodies must have a Controlled Drug Accountable Officer (CDAO). This is a case study demonstrating the role of the CDAO and safety of controlled drugs.
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Content ArticleIn Calgary, each of the three acute-care adult hospitals had different anesthetic medication carts with their own type and layout of anaesthetic medications. A number of anaesthesiologists moved among the different sites, increasing the potential for medication errors. The objective of this study from Schultz et al., published in the Canadian Journal of Anesthesia, was to identify the anesthetic medications to include and to determine how they should be grouped and positioned in a standardised anesthesia medication cart drawer. Implementation of the standardised medication drawer is expected to reduce the likelihood of medication errors. Future research should include testing the clinical implications of this standardization and applying the methodology to other areas.
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Content ArticlePharmaceutical companies use a variety of abbreviations to denote short- and long-acting medications. Errors involving the administration of these medications are frequently reported.
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Content ArticleA new study published in the December 2019 issue of The Joint Commission Journal on Quality and Patient Safety details a quality improvement project by researchers at Penn Medicine, Philadelphia, USA, to reduce the risk of single-patient insulin pens. Insulin pens are widely used in hospitals because they have multiple safety advantages compared to insulin vials, including a product name and barcode and a dial mechanism for less error-prone dosing. Despite these features, accidental sharing of pens still occurs, putting patients at risk for exposure to HIV, hepatitis B virus or hepatitis C virus.
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Content ArticleAHRQ’s new toolkit to improve antibiotic use in acute care hospitals. Based on the experiences of more than 400 hospitals that participated in AHRQ’s Safety Program for Improving Antibiotic Use, the toolkit guides users through its signature 'Four Moments of Antibiotic Decision Making,' a step-by-step approach for doctors to achieve optimal antibiotic prescribing.
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Content ArticleI have worked in the UK NHS as a hospital pharmacist for 13 years, experiencing a variety of specialities before specialising in cancer and education and, more recently, gastroenterology. I am also an avid traveller and have witnessed that, while we are globally connected, populations around the world are not as fortunate as we are in the UK for medicine and healthcare access and as a result are dying of very treatable diseases. This fuelled me to enrol on the Global Health Policy post-graduate masters (MSc). On completing my MSc, an opportunity arose to take part in the Global Health Fellowship and so I began working with Zambian colleagues at the University Teaching Hospital (UTH) and University of Zambia (UNZA), Lusaka, via the Brighton-Lusaka health link. This fellowship is a collaborative project between Commonwealth Pharmacists Association (CPA), Tropical Health and Education Trust (THET) and the Fleming Fund and is an avenue for pharmacists to become more involved in global health and improve medicine usage.
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Content ArticleExamples and recommendations around how to implement some aspects from the Royal Pharmaceutical Society's report: Getting the medicines right.
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Content ArticleGood patient-pharmacist communication improves health outcomes. There is, however, room for improving pharmacists’ communication skills. These develop through complex interactions during undergraduate pharmacy education, practice-based learning and continuing professional development. The aim of the research, published in Systemic Reviews, is to understand how educational interventions develop patient-pharmacist interpersonal communication skills produce their effects.
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Content Article
Royal Pharmaceutical Society: Antimicrobial stewardship portal
Claire Cox posted an article in Medicine management
The AMS Portal signposts resources and information to promote learning about antimicrobial stewardship (AMS) and antibiotic resistance. The Portal focuses on resources in the UK for pharmacists and pharmacy teams and within each section they have identified key resources to support pharmacy practice within the UK. They recognise, however, the need to signpost worldwide information and resources from outside the UK and these are also included as additional links. The aim is to continuously develop the AMS Portal to be accessible across all healthcare professions, encouraging a multidisciplinary and collaborative approach for improvement of antimicrobial use. The AMS Portal is intended as a dynamic ‘living’ resource which is constantly revised and updated. -
Content Article
Royal Pharmaceutical Society: Pharmacy alerts
Claire Cox posted an article in Medication
Keep up to date with changes affecting your practice, including drug news, safety updates, drug alerts, legislative changes and new guidance or standards. These drug safety alerts are updated regularly by the Royal Pharmaceutical Society. -
Content ArticleHealthcare organisations including regulators, royal colleges and faculties have issued a set of principles to help protect patient safety and welfare when accessing potentially-harmful medication online or over the phone. The jointly-agreed princsiples set out the good practice expected of healthcare professionals when prescribing medication online.
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Content ArticlePolypharmacy is an ongoing challenge for the NHS, particularly affecting older people. Wessex Academic Health Science Network, on behalf of the AHSN Network, led work to develop the NHS Business Services Authority Polypharmacy Prescribing Comparators. These help clinical commissioning groups and GP practices understand variation in prescribing of multiple medicines and enable identification of patients most exposed to the risks of polypharmacy. The Comparators are now a nationally available data tool, and data shows that if used to full effect, they can help CCGs and GP practices to reduce the rate of polypharmacy in patients at greatest risk.
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Content ArticleAntibiotic resistance is increasing worldwide due to overuse and misuse of antibiotics. Newborn baby Amala has a life-threatening infection called septicemia. Will her antibiotic treatment work? This video from the World Health Organization (WHO) explains what people can do to prevent the spread of antibiotic resistance.
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Content ArticleThis toolkit, published by Public Health England, provides an outline of evidence-based antimicrobial stewardship in the secondary healthcare setting. Following this toolkit will help organisations to demonstrate compliance with the Health and Social Care Act 2008: Code of Practice on the prevention and control of infections and related guidance.
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Content ArticleTARGET stands for: Treat Antibiotics Responsibly, Guidance, Education, Tools. The toolkit helps influence prescribers’ and patients’ personal attitudes, social norms and perceived barriers to optimal antibiotic prescribing. It includes a range of resources that can each be used to support prescribers’ and patients’ responsible antibiotic use, helping to fulfil continued professional development (CPD) and revalidation requirements.
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Content Article
PHE: Become an antibiotic guardian
Claire Cox posted an article in Medicine management
The Antibiotic Guardian campaign is led by Public Health England (PHE) in collaboration with the Devolved Administrations (Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland); the Department for Environment Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) and professional bodies/ organisations towards the ‘One Health’ initiative. Antibiotic resistance is one of the biggest threats facing us today. Without effective antibiotics many routine treatments will become increasingly dangerous. Setting broken bones, basic operations, even chemotherapy and animal health all rely on access to antibiotics that work. To slow resistance we need to cut the unnecessary use of antibiotics. The Antibiotic Guardian invite the public, students and educators, farmers, the veterinary and medical communities and professional organisations, to become Antibiotic Guardians. -
Content ArticleKathleen Sutcliffe is a Bloomberg Distinguished Professor at Johns Hopkins University and the co-author of a forthcoming book Still not safe: patient safety and the middle-managing of American medicine (Oxford University Press).
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Content ArticlePresentation from Dr Devina Halsall, NHS England & NHS Improvement Northwest Region, at the 'A New Strategy for Patient Safety - Insight, Involvement, Improvement' conference held in Manchester on the 16 October 2019.
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Content ArticleElectronic health records (EHR) can improve safety via computerised physician order entry with clinical decision support, designed in part to alert providers and prevent potential adverse drug events at entry and before they reach the patient. However, early evidence suggested performance at preventing adverse drug events was mixed. In this study published in BMJ Quality & Safety, Bates et al. used data from 1527 hospitals in the USA from 2009 to 2016 who took a safety performance assessment test using simulated medication orders to test how well their EHR prevented medication errors with potential for patient harm. Results found that the average hospital EHR system correctly prevented only 54.0% of potential adverse drug events tested on the 44-order safety performance assessment in 2009; this rose to 61.6% in 2016. Hospitals that took the assessment multiple times performed better in subsequent years than those taking the test the first time, from 55.2% in the first year of test experience to 70.3% in the eighth, suggesting efforts to participate in voluntary self-assessment and improvement may be helpful in improving medication safety performance. The authors conclude that medication order safety performance has improved over time but is far from perfect. The specifics of EHR medication safety implementation and improvement play a key role in realising the benefits of computerising prescribing, as organisations have substantial latitude in terms of what they implement. Intentional quality improvement efforts appear to be a critical part of high safety performance and may indicate the importance of a culture of safety.
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Content ArticleThe Healthcare and Safety Investigation Branch (HSIB) identified a significant safety risk posed by the communication and transfer of information between secondary care, primary care and community pharmacy relating to medicines at the time of hospital discharge. A reference event was identified that resulted in a patient inadvertently receiving two anticoagulant medications at the same time, possibly causing an episode of gastrointestinal (digestive tract) bleeding. Increasingly, healthcare facilities in primary and secondary care are introducing digital solutions (electronic prescribing and medicines administration (ePMA) systems) to improve medicines safety. However, analysis of the reference event identified how ePMA systems can create their own risks – risks that will need to be addressed as these systems become more widespread. Other risk factors relating to prescribing and the discharge of the patient, including medicines reconciliation, availability of pharmacy services and weekend working, were identified during the investigation.
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Content ArticleFollowing the 'A New Strategy for Patient Safety - Insight, Involvement, Improvement' conference held in Manchester on the 16 October 2019, chaired by Helen Hughes of Patient Safety Learning, I am pleased to share the speaker presentations on the hub. A new London conference has been announced for 29 April 2020. Telephone: 0161 376 9007; Email: info@openforumevents.co.uk for further information.
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Content Article
The Neptune story so far
Neptune posted an article in Other health and care software
Winner of Patient Safety Learning's 'Data and Insight' 2019 award, Neptune is a drug testing monitoring software. Catherine tells the story of Neptune's journey from initial idea to implementation. -
Content Article
Falsified medicines and medical devices: MHRA campaign
Patient Safety Learning posted an article in Medication
Fake medicines and medical devices bought online can lead to serious negative health consequences. Buying from dodgy websites also increases the risk of being ripped off through credit card fraud or having your identity stolen. The #FakeMeds campaign, run by Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA), helps you protect your health and money by providing quick and easy tools so you can avoid fake medical products when you shop online.
