Jump to content

Search the hub

Showing results for tags 'Prescribing'.

More search options

  • Search By Tags

    Start to type the tag you want to use, then select from the list.

  • Search By Author

Content Type


Forums

  • All
    • Commissioning, service provision and innovation in health and care
    • Coronavirus (COVID-19)
    • Culture
    • Improving patient safety
    • Investigations, risk management and legal issues
    • Leadership for patient safety
    • Organisations linked to patient safety (UK and beyond)
    • Patient engagement
    • Patient safety in health and care
    • Patient Safety Learning
    • Professionalising patient safety
    • Research, data and insight
    • Miscellaneous

Categories

  • Commissioning, service provision and innovation in health and care
    • Commissioning and funding patient safety
    • Digital health and care service provision
    • Health records and plans
    • Innovation programmes in health and care
    • Climate change/sustainability
  • Coronavirus (COVID-19)
    • Blogs
    • Data, research and statistics
    • Frontline insights during the pandemic
    • Good practice and useful resources
    • Guidance
    • Mental health
    • Exit strategies
    • Patient recovery
    • Questions around Government governance
  • Culture
    • Bullying and fear
    • Good practice
    • Occupational health and safety
    • Safety culture programmes
    • Second victim
    • Speak Up Guardians
    • Staff safety
    • Whistle blowing
  • Improving patient safety
    • Clinical governance and audits
    • Design for safety
    • Disasters averted/near misses
    • Equipment and facilities
    • Error traps
    • Health inequalities
    • Human factors (improving human performance in care delivery)
    • Improving systems of care
    • Implementation of improvements
    • International development and humanitarian
    • Safety stories
    • Stories from the front line
    • Workforce and resources
  • Investigations, risk management and legal issues
    • Investigations and complaints
    • Risk management and legal issues
  • Leadership for patient safety
    • Business case for patient safety
    • Boards
    • Clinical leadership
    • Exec teams
    • Inquiries
    • International reports
    • National/Governmental
    • Patient Safety Commissioner
    • Quality and safety reports
    • Techniques
    • Other
  • Organisations linked to patient safety (UK and beyond)
    • Government and ALB direction and guidance
    • International patient safety
    • Regulators and their regulations
  • Patient engagement
    • Consent and privacy
    • Harmed care patient pathways/post-incident pathways
    • How to engage for patient safety
    • Keeping patients safe
    • Patient-centred care
    • Patient Safety Partners
    • Patient stories
  • Patient safety in health and care
    • Care settings
    • Conditions
    • Diagnosis
    • High risk areas
    • Learning disabilities
    • Medication
    • Mental health
    • Men's health
    • Patient management
    • Social care
    • Transitions of care
    • Women's health
  • Patient Safety Learning
    • Patient Safety Learning campaigns
    • Patient Safety Learning documents
    • Patient Safety Standards
    • 2-minute Tuesdays
    • Patient Safety Learning Annual Conference 2019
    • Patient Safety Learning Annual Conference 2018
    • Patient Safety Learning Awards 2019
    • Patient Safety Learning Interviews
    • Patient Safety Learning webinars
  • Professionalising patient safety
    • Accreditation for patient safety
    • Competency framework
    • Medical students
    • Patient safety standards
    • Training & education
  • Research, data and insight
    • Data and insight
    • Research
  • Miscellaneous

News

  • News

Find results in...

Find results that contain...


Date Created

  • Start
    End

Last updated

  • Start
    End

Filter by number of...

Joined

  • Start

    End

Group

First name

Last name

Country

Join a private group (if appropriate)

About me

Organisation

Role

Found 327 results
  1. Content Article
    Every year, thousands of emergency department (ED) visits result in patients being discharged with oral antibiotic prescriptions. Published studies that assess the appropriateness of these antibiotic regimens are limited. The purpose of this study from Bauman et al. was to examine the appropriateness of antibiotic prescriptions written for patients discharged from a community hospital’s ED. A total of 76% of the prescribed antibiotics were appropriate, 16% were inappropriate, and the remaining 8% were not assessable. Duration was the most common reason for a regimen to not be optimal. The most frequently inappropriately prescribed antibiotics included cephalexin (but it is noted cephalexin was included in almost half of the antibiotic regimens in this study), clindamycin, and azithromycin. Infections that were most frequently treated inappropriately were skin and soft tissue infections, dental infections, and sinusitis. 
  2. Content Article
    In this blog Patient Safety Learning considers several key patient safety issues highlighted in a recent investigation by the Healthcare Safety Investigation Branch (HSIB) into unintentional overdose of morphine sulfate oral solution. We argue that in some areas, further action is required to prevent incidents of avoidable harm recurring.
  3. Content Article
    This Healthcare Safety Investigation Branch (HSIB) investigation aims to improve patient safety in relation to the use of oral morphine sulfate solution (a strong pain-relieving medication taken by mouth). As its ‘reference case’, the investigation used the case of Len, an 89 year-old man who took an accidental overdose of morphine sulfate oral liquid. Patient Safety Learning has published a blog reflecting on the key patient safety issues highlighted in this report.
  4. News Article
    Nearly a third of community pharmacies in Wales should be able to prescribe medicines for NHS patients, including antibiotics, by the end of this year, health officials say. It is the first new service of its kind in the UK. The aim is to take the pressure off GPs at a time of increasing strain on the NHS. Scotland has adopted a similar approach but England and Northern Ireland have not so far. Community pharmacies in Wales are allowed to offer prescriptions of medicines for acute illnesses such as urinary tract and respiratory infections, gout and chronic pain, as well as emergency contraception - if they have a pharmacist who has had extra training for prescribing. For most patients, that will be more convenient and avoid waits for GP appointments. The plan is to roll out the service progressively across Wales, building on local schemes already in place. Local doctors in general practice have welcomed the new policy. Dr Penny Coyle said each week about 25 patients with minor ailments were referred to the pharmacist, saving 100 GP appointments a month and giving doctors more time to visit seriously ill patients in their homes. "We are finding that demand is outweighing capacity and so anything that relieves some of the pressure on general practice is very welcome," she said. Association of Independent Multiple Pharmacies chief executive Dr Leyla Hannbeck said: "Pharmacist prescribers can help massively when you think about the shortages and the HRT issues, for example, that we are currently facing - having a pharmacist prescriber being able to prescribe alternative medicines without the patient having to wait to see the GP." Read full story Source: BBC News, 27 April 2022
  5. Content Article
    In 2016, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention published prescribing guidelines for opioids. Though intended to encourage best practices in opioid prescribing, these guidelines fueled providers’ fears of opioids and led to many clinicians abandoning patients who relied on opioids for pain relief. In this article, Antje M. Barreveld reflects on the harms he may have caused by underprescribing these drugs, not overprescribing them.
  6. Content Article
    Children born to women who take valproate during pregnancy are at significant risk of birth defects and persistent developmental disorders. As such, it is vital that women and girls are dispensed valproate safely. The General Pharmaceutical Council is reminding all pharmacy professionals of what they must do to ensure women and girls receive the right information about valproate and the risk of birth defects. The update includes
  7. Content Article
    Presentation on the of theme of prevention of medication error from Philip A Routledge and James Coulson (All Wales Therapeutics and Toxicology Centre). Presentation available as slides a written transcript.
  8. Content Article
    Medication safety events with the potential for patient harm do occur in healthcare settings. Pharmacists are regularly tasked with utilizing their medication knowledge to optimize the medication-use process and reduce the likelihood of error. To prepare for these responsibilities in professional practice, it is important to introduce patient safety principles during educational experiences. The Accreditation Council for Pharmacy Education (ACPE) and the American Society of Health-System Pharmacists (ASHP) have set forth accreditation standards focused on the management of medication-use processes to ensure these competencies during pharmacy didactic learning and postgraduate training. The experience described here provides perspective on educational and experiential opportunities across the continuum of pharmacy education, with a focus on a relationship between a college of pharmacy and healthcare system. Various activities, including discussions, medication event reviews, audits, and continuous quality improvement efforts, have provided the experiences to achieve standards for these pharmacy learners. These activities support a culture of safety from early training.
  9. Content Article
    For many people, improving their health and wellbeing requires a holistic approach and support by professionals who can help them focus on what matters to them to live well. Social prescribing supports people to understand their needs and connects them to local community (non-clinical) often voluntary services which can provide the help they need.
  10. Content Article
    This article in the journal Archives of Disease in Childhood examines patient safety theories and suggests principles to tackle safety challenges specific to paediatric care. The authors provide an overview of the evolution of patient safety theories and tools such as huddles and electronic prescribing. They look at the example of Paediatric Early Warning Systems (PEWS), highlighting that the organisational context and culture in which PEWS is used will dramatically affect its effectiveness as a tool. They conclude that approaches to patient safety must see it as a complex interconnected whole, rooted in the culture and environment in which safety interventions act. They also argue that paediatricians must take a lead in improving the safety of the care they deliver on a systems basis.
  11. Content Article
    Potassium permanganate is routinely used in the NHS as a dilute solution to treat weeping and blistering skin conditions, such as acute  weeping/infected eczema and leg ulcers. It is not licensed as a medicine. Supplied in concentrated forms, either as a ‘tablet’ or a solution, it  requires dilution before it is used as a soak or in the bath. These concentrated forms resemble an oral tablet or juice drink and if ingested are highly toxic; causing rapid swelling and bleeding of the lips and tongue, gross oropharyngeal oedema, local tissue necrosis, stridor, and gastrointestinal ulceration. Ingestion can be fatal due to gastrointestinal haemorrhage, acute respiratory distress syndrome and/or multiorgan failure. Even dilute solutions can be toxic if swallowed. A Patient Safety Alert issued in 20142 highlighted incidents where patients had inadvertently ingested the concentrated form, and the risks in relation to terminology and presenting tablets or solution in receptacles that imply they are for oral ingestion, such as plastic cups or jugs. A review of the National Reporting and Learning System over a two-year period identified that incidents of ingestion are still occurring. One  report described an older patient dying from aspiration pneumonia and extensive laryngeal swelling after ingesting potassium permanganate tablets left by her bedside. Review of the other 34 incidents identified key themes: healthcare staff administering potassium permanganate orally patients taking potassium permanganate orally at home, or when left on a bedside locker potassium permanganate incorrectly prescribed as oral medication. The British Association of Dermatologists (BAD) ‘Recommendations to minimise risk of harm from potassium permanganate soaks’ includes advice on formulary management, prescribing, dispensing, storage, preparation and use, and waste.
  12. Content Article
    This is part of our new series of Patient Safety Spotlight interviews, where we talk to people about their role and what motivates them to make health and social care safer. Roohil talks to us about the vital role of pharmacists in making sure medications help patients, rather than causing harm. She highlights the global threat of substandard and counterfeit medicines, the need to improve access to medicines and the importance of having pharmacists 'on the ground' to help patients understand how to take them.
  13. News Article
    RaDonda Vaught's conviction for a fatal medical error has already damaged patient safety and should serve as a wake-up call for health system leaders to improve harm prevention efforts, the Institute for Healthcare Improvement has said. Ms. Vaught was convicted 25 March of criminally negligent homicide and abuse of an impaired adult for a fatal medication error she made in December 2017 while working as a nurse at Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville, Tenn. "We know from decades of work in hospitals and other care settings that most medical errors result from flawed systems, not reckless practitioners," IHI said. "We also know that systems can learn from errors and improve, but only when those systems encourage reporting, transparently acknowledge their mistakes and are held accountable for those errors." The organization said criminal prosecution of errors over-focuses on the individual and diverts attention from necessary system-level issues and improvements. "Were this practice to be repeated in future cases of a serious or fatal error, there will be more damage, less transparency, less accountability and more lives lost," IHI said. "Instead, this case should be a wake-up call to health system leaders who need to proactively identify system faults and risks and prevent harm to patients and those who care for them."
  14. News Article
    We have the technology to start a new era in medicine by precisely matching drugs to people's genetic code, a major report says. Some drugs are completely ineffective or become deadly because of subtle differences in how our bodies function. The British Pharmacological Society and the Royal College of Physicians say a genetic test can predict how well drugs work in your body. The tests could be available on the NHS next year. It would have helped Jane Burns, from Liverpool, who lost two-thirds of her skin when she reacted badly to a new epilepsy drug. She was put on to carbamazepine when she was 19. Two weeks later, she developed a rash and her parents took her to A&E when she had a raging fever and began hallucinating. The skin damage started the next morning. Jane told the BBC: "I remember waking up and I was just covered in blisters, it was like something out of a horror film, it was like I'd been on fire." Jane's experience may sound rare, but Prof Mark Caulfield, the president-elect of the British Pharmacological Society, said "99.5% of us have at least one change in our genome that, if we come across the wrong medicine, it will either not work or it will actually cause harm." "We need to move away from 'one drug and one dose fits all' to a more personalised approach, where patients are given the right drug at the right dose to improve the effectiveness and safety of medicines," said Prof Sir Munir Pirmohamed, from the University of Liverpool. Read full story Source: BBC News, 29 March 2022
  15. Content Article
    This guide from the Patient Safety Movement Foundation gives actions and resources for creating and sustaining safe practices for reducing medication errors. In it, you’ll find: Executive summary checklist What we know about medication errors Leadership plan Action plan Technology plan Measuring outcomes Conflicts of interest disclosure. Workgroup References.
  16. Content Article
    This article in the British Journal of Clinical Pharmacology aimed to calculate the medication costs of potentially inappropriate prescribing for middle-aged adults compare with the cost of consensus-validated, evidence-based, ‘adequate’ alternative prescribing scenarios. It used a Delphi consensus panel and cross-sectional study to examine primary care data of 55,880 patients aged 45-64 years old in South London. The study found that duplicate drug classes was the most costly criterion for both PIP and alternative prescribing. It identified no substantial cost difference between adequate prescribing versus PIP and the authors recommend that future studies investigate the wider health economic costs of alternative prescribing, such as reducing hospital admissions.
  17. Event
    Unsafe medication practices and medication errors are a leading cause of injury and avoidable harm in health care systems across the world. WHO Patient Safety Flagship has initiated a series of monthly webinars on the topic of “WHO Global Patient Safety Challenge: Medication Without Harm”,. The main objective of the webinar series is support implementation of this WHO Global Patient Safety Challenge: Medication Without Harm at the country level. Considering the huge burden of medication-related harm, Medication Safety has also been selected as the theme for World Patient Safety Day 2022. Medication errors cause patient harm and death at a very high rate. It happens not only inside the health care facilities but also anywhere patients take medication. How to capture the medication safety incidents and learn from them have been a critical issue for patient safety. A country-wide/organsation-wide reporting and learning system that captures and analyses medication errors is proven to help estimate the magnitude of harm, identify system gaps, and develop measures to prevent reoccurrences. Furthermore, a nationwide pharmacovigilance system helps capture adverse drug reactions and informs regulators, healthcare professionals, and the public about safety concerns regarding pharmaceutical products. This webinar will discuss the medication error reporting and learning, as well as the pharmacovigilance systems which are widely used globally. Register
  18. News Article
    Antipsychotics have been frequently and increasingly prescribed for extended periods to people with recorded personality disorder but no history of severe mental illness, a study looking at UK general practice data has found. Researchers from University College London looked at 46 210 people who had had personality disorder recorded in their GP record between January 2000 and 31 December 2016. Of these, 15 562 (34%) had been prescribed antipsychotics. The study, published in BMJ Open, also found that 36 875 people with a record of personality disorder had no record of severe mental illness. An urgent review of clinical practice is warranted, including the effectiveness of such prescribing and the need to monitor for adverse effects, including metabolic complications. Read full story (paywalled) Source: BMJ, 10 March 2022
  19. News Article
    Sasha Mallett, Sue Taylor and Kimberly Cooley all have immune deficiencies that make them especially vulnerable to Covid-19, and all have tried to get the same thing: a new treatment that can prevent the disease in people who either cannot produce antibodies after receiving a coronavirus vaccine or cannot get vaccinated at all. Ms. Cooley, a liver transplant recipient in Duck Hill, Mississippi, got the antibody drug, called Evusheld, from her transplant team at the University of Mississippi Medical Center with no trouble. But Ms. Taylor, of Cincinnati, was denied the treatment by two hospitals near her home. And Dr. Mallett, a physician in Portland, Ore., had to drive five hours to a hospital willing to give her a dose. As much of the USA unmasks amid plummeting caseloads and fresh hope that the pandemic is fading, the Biden administration has insisted it will continue protecting the more than seven million Americans with weakened immune systems who remain vulnerable to Covid. Evusheld, which was developed by AstraZeneca with financial support from the federal government, is essential to its strategy. But there is so much confusion about the drug among healthcare providers that roughly 80% of the available doses are sitting unused in warehouses and on pharmacy and hospital shelves. Interviews with doctors, patients and government officials suggest the reasons the drug is going unused are varied. Some patients and doctors do not know Evusheld exists. Some do not know where to get it. Government guidelines on who should be prioritised for the drug are scant. In some hospitals and medical centres, supplies are being reserved for patients at the highest risk, such as recent transplant recipients and cancer patients, while doses in other areas of the country are being given out through a lottery or on a first-come, first-served basis. Hesitance is also an issue. Some doctors and other providers do not know how to use Evusheld and are thus loath to prescribe it. Read full story (paywalled) Source: New York Times, 6 March 2022
  20. Content Article
    This guidance from the British Medical Association (BMA) covers frequently asked questions around prescribing in primary care and informs GPs of the BMA general practice committee’s policies in prescribing.
  21. Content Article
    Unsafe medication practices and medication errors are a leading cause of injury and avoidable harm in health care systems across the world. The World Health Organization (WHO) has launched the Third WHO Global Patient Safety Challenge: Medication Without Harm to improve medication safety. Considering the huge burden of medication-related harm, Medication Safety has also been selected as theme for World Patient Safety Day 2022. WHO is launching a series of webinars to introduce the strategic framework for implementation of the Challenge, technical strategies, tools and provide technical support to countries for reducing medication-related harm. The webinars will share country and patient experiences in implementing the Challenge. These presentations from the opening webinar sets out the urgency to address the challenge, the strategic framework and progress to date. 
  22. Event
    until
    Around 1 in 5 hospital admissions in over-65s and around 6.5% of total hospital admissions are caused by the adverse effects of medicines. Prescribing people medicines that they neither need nor want can lead to serious harm, as identified in the Government’s 2021 National overprescribing review report. This is why the PRSB has been tasked with reviewing and revising our eDischarge summary standard and supporting documentation to ensure it addresses the issue of #oveprescribing and provide useful guidance to help users address issues. To do this, we are holding an online consultation with organisations who endorsed the 2017 eDischarge standard, the individuals and representatives who participated in the standard’s development consultations, those who have since implemented the 2017 standard and frontline health and care professionals – particularly prescribers – and people. Data standards ensure that people’s medicines information is recorded in a single, digital space that is at less risk of human error than if recorded on paper. Standards also allow for this information to be recorded in a common way that is shareable and readable across different computer systems in different care settings, for care at the point of need. Read more about how standards can support medicines reconciliation and reduce overprescribing: https://theprsb.org/prsb-response-to-national-over-prescribing-review-report/ Register
  23. Gallery Image
    Rocuronium bromide and Midazolam
    Why would manufacturers make labelling for rocuronium orange? This is something you wouldn't want to muddle up.
  24. Content Article
    In North America, although pharmacists are obligated to ensure prescribed medications are appropriate, information about a patient’s reason for use is not a required component of a legal prescription. The benefits of prescribers including the reason for use on prescriptions is evident in the current literature. However, it is not standard practice to share this information with pharmacists.The aim of this study was to characterise the research on how including the reason for use on a prescription impacts pharmacists.The results suggest that including the reason for use on a prescription can help the pharmacist catch more errors, reduce the need to contact prescribers, support patient counseling, impact communication, and improve patient safety. Reasons that may prevent prescribers from adding the reason for use information are concerns about workflow and patient privacy.
  25. Content Article
    The US Institute for Safe Medication Practices (ISMP) list of error-prone abbreviations, symbols, and dose designations contains abbreviations, symbols, and dose designations which have been reported through the ISMP National Medication Errors Reporting Program (ISMP MERP) and have been misinterpreted and involved in harmful or potentially harmful medication errors. These abbreviations, symbols, and dose designations should NEVER be used when communicating medical information verbally, electronically, and/or in handwritten applications. This includes internal communications; verbal, handwritten, or electronic prescriptions; handwritten and computer-generated medication labels; drug storage bin labels; medication administration records; and screens associated with pharmacy and prescriber computer order entry systems, automated dispensing cabinets, smart infusion pumps, and other medication-related technologies. 
×
×
  • Create New...