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Disadvantages of medication errors
Medication error risks
Disadvantages of medication errors
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The organizations that use contracts may make use of more than one contract. The contracting process could segregate pharmaceuticals from consultants. The segregation permits renegotiations for a specific purpose. Consultant services generally incorporate policy and procedure updates related to state and federal regulatory compliance, quality assurance programs, and staff education. The contracts may update professional services as it relates to a change in populations. The inclusion of a sub-acute unit that requires more advanced equipment, multiple medication changes, and an advanced emergency kit represents an update to professional services.
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The role of the consultant pharmacist involves overseeing pharmaceutical services as well as evaluating and monitoring drug therapy of residents (Brown, 1988). The consultant pharmacist should have a written agreement or contract with the facility that outlines responsibilities and scope of service. The pharmacist coordinates pharmaceutical services in the pharmacy contract. These wide ranges of services include ongoing quality assurance checks and drug review. They also include recommendations and implementation of the emergency kits the pharmacy controls and maintains. Provision of organized medication carts greatly reduces drug administration errors as it separates prescribed medications for each resident with each drug in unit dose packaging (Brown, 1988).
Pharmacists conduct in-service training programs to meet the needs of the professional staff and other ancillary personnel. Topics may include monitoring residents on complex drug regimens, the use of infusion pumps, administration of IV’s and IV’s certification, and updates related to state and federal regulatory complia...
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...have quality programs. Modern Healthcare. 30(43) 56. Retrieved April 5, 2010 from the EBSCO database.
Prescription Drug Errors Can Affect Millions of Patients. Nutrition Health Review: The Consumer's Medical Journal; 2006, Issue 96, p19-19, 2/3p. Retrieved April 2, 2010 from http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=awh&AN=25554129&site=ehost-live.
Sloane, P.D., Bates, J., Donahue, K., Irmiter, C. & Gadon, M. (1995-2010). Effective clinical partnerships between primary care medical practices and public health agencies. American Medical Association. Retrieved April 2, 2010 from http://www.ama- assn.org/ama/pub/physician-resources/
Wilson, D., Malloy, M., McCoy, J., & Turner, M. (2004). 3 steps to profitable managed care contracts. Healthcare Financial Management: Journal Of The Healthcare Financial Management Association, 58(5), 34-38.
The Physician/Hospital alignment model is the teamwork between physicians and hospitals to achieve the common goal of providing quality care to patients (med synergies). Physician/hospital alignment opportunities have come into play more predominantly in recent years due to quality, financial, and regulatory aspects of healthcare reform. Physicians and hospitals are more motivated to align now because the new healthcare reform requires an improvement on key aspects such as quality, cost, and efficiency. Moreover, an increase in patient numbers, a decrease in reimbursements, and a shift among new physician goals and values have contributed to the drive for this alignment. Physician/hospital alignment can be characterized in the range of tactical to transformational. Tactical alignments can include joint ventures, co-management agreements, volunteer medical staff, etc.
The most common kind of medication error is administering the wrong medication or giving wrong doses. A medication error is any error that happens to patients whether they suffer any harmful results or not. Inappropriate nurses-to-patients ratio should be taken into consideration because it can cause medication errors. A new study shows that every year about 210,000-400,000 people who were admitted to the hospital die due to medication error; it also shows that is is “the third leading cause of death behind heart disease and cancer”(MacDonald). For instance, an interview was done with Nurse Carol, a retired nurse; she said that she made a medication error while administering medication to one of her patients. She said that she was rushing and accidentally gave Cozaar to one of her patients instead of Colace. Cozaar is often used for high blood pressure and Colace is for constipation. She said her patient’s pressure dropped very low after taking the medication; she realized then that she gave the patient the wrong medication. Nurse Carol also said that if she did no...
medications is more than the act of getting drugs to a patient. The delivery of medication is directly tied to the charge for the medication. Thus the responsibility for charging or crediting medication belongs to technicians. This aspect of their job is strictly governed by federal regulations. These laws hold the technician directly responsible for the accuracy of a patient’s account’s charge and credit transactions. Because every dose is related to a specific day and time, when technicians credit they must apply that change to the corresponding dose. Assignificant as accuracy is to the patient’s account, accuracy in the making of their medications is even more important.
In America, it has become a battle to earn a high paying job to cope with the expenses of a typical American. It has become even more of a battle for some people to afford medical prescriptions to keep healthy. Health becomes a crucial issue when discussed among people. No matter what, at one point or another, everyone is going to stand as a victim of the pharmaceutical industry. The bottom line is Americans are paying excessive amounts of money for medical prescriptions. Health-Care spending in the U.S. rose a stunning 9.3% in 2002, which is the greatest increase for the past eleven years. (Steele 46) Many pharmaceutical companies are robbing their clients by charging extreme rates for their products.
Some method such as audits, chart reviews, computer monitoring, incident report, bar codes and direct patient observation can improve and decrease medication errors. Regular audits can help patient’s care and reeducate nurses in the work field to new practices. Also reporting of medication errors can help with data comparison and is a learning experience for everyone. Other avenues that has been implemented are computerized physician order entry systems or electronic prescribing (a process of electronic entry of a doctor’s instructions for the treatment of patients under his/her care which communicates these orders over a computer network to other staff or departments) responsible for fulfilling the order, and ward pharmacists can be more diligence on the prescription stage of the medication pathway. A random survey was done in hospital pharmacies on medication error documentation and actions taken against pharmacists involved. A total of 500 hospital were selected in the United States. Data collected on the number of medication error reported, what types of errors were documented and the hospital demographics. The response rate was a total of 28%. Practically, all of the hospitals had policies and procedures in place for reporting medication errors.
Currently, through observations and clinical experience on Med/Surg at Cary Medical Center, medication is administered by the nurse. Nurses are responsible and accountable for administrating medications to patients. Patient me...
The patient care processes must be consistent with the patient care processes of all other health care providers. These processes include the assessment of the client’s pharmaceutical needs, a health care plan that is constructed to meet the specific needs of the client and a process in which evaluates the health care plan to gauge the efficacy of decisions made and actions taken. Pharmaceutical care management system includes all resources needed to manage the client’s needs, which include the space provided, such as a clinic or hospital, an appointment system for patients, appropriate and ethical documentation, reporting of patient care, evaluation of decisions made and actions taken and payment of service
Currently, through observations and clinical experience on Med/Surg at Cary Medical Center, medication is administered by the nurse. Nurses are responsible and accountable for administrating medications to patients. Patient medication education is conducted by the nurse. Medication education includes informing the patient the reason for the medication, when and how long to take the medication, drug interactions, and importance of checking with primary care provider prior to taking any over-the-counter or herbal products. If the nurse is unfamiliar with a certain medication, a drug book is available for the nurse to utilize and gain knowledge regarding the drug use, action, adverse reaction, and contraindications.
I pleased to apply to the PharmD program as the program is one area that corresponds to my career dreams. Being part of this program gives one the opportunity to gain an excellent experience in working and collaborating with various health care providers in the ward. But more importantly, it facilitates a practical environment in dealing more closely with patients. Hence, it helps to provide the ultimate health care services to patients. Also, it permits me to carry on gaining different knowledge, skills, and values in addition to those I have already developed during my undergraduate studies. My interest in being a clinical pharmacist was first aroused during my SPEP rotation in the hospital setting where I was really impressed with the role of clinical pharmacists who provide a consistent process of patient care with healthcare teams to maintain the appropriateness, effectiveness and safety of the medication use. Unlike a pharmacist, a clinical pharmacist has a more diversified responsibilities and closeness to direct patient care. Moreover, provides
Medication errors made by medical staff bring about consequences of epidemic proportions. Medical staff includes everyone from providers (medical doctors, nurse practitioners and physician assistants) to pharmacists to nurses (registered and practical). Medication errors account for almost 98,000 deaths in the United States yearly (Tzeng, Yin, & Schneider, 2013). This number only reflects the United States, a small percentage in actuality when looking at the whole world. Medical personnel must take responsibility for their actions and with this responsibility comes accountability in their duties of medication administration. Nurses play a major role in medication error prevention and education and this role distinguishes them as reporters of errors.
The patients that require interdisciplinary team approach are mainly patients with multiple and complex chronic diseases or diagnosis and probably has affected all other functional aspects and patterns of their body which may require the services of more than one health professional to help in his treatment and care. Some examples of these patients include those with cases of complications of the following disease processes and might however in some cases need assistance towards the successful performance of his or her ADLs. These disease conditions include; diabetes, congestive heart failure, hypertension, elevated cholesterol, and arthritis to mention but a few.
Over the past years the role of a Nurse Practitioner (NP) continues to advance allowing them to gain more access to patient care including furnishing drugs and devices. Furnishing is process of ordering drugs/devices and making it available to the consumers. The furnished drugs/devices should agree upon the standardized protocol of the supervising physician or the company where an NP is working (BRN, 2004). According to Board of Registered Nursing (BRN) in order to allow the NP to furnish medications and drugs, the NP should complete an advanced pharmacology course from a nationally accredited post-master’s or master’s level academic institution and file an application to Board of Registered Nursing (BRN, 2012).
Drug administration forms a major part of the clinical nurse’s role. Medicines are prescribed by the doctor and dispensed by the pharmacist but responsibility for correct administration rests with the registered nurse (O'Shea 1999). So as a student nurse this has become my duty and something that I need to practice and become competent in carrying it out. Each registered nurse is accountable for his/her practice. This practice includes preparing, checking and administering medications, updating knowledge of medications, monitoring the effectiveness of treatment, reporting adverse drug reactions and teaching patients about the drugs that they receive (NMC 2008). Accountability also goes for students, if at any point I felt I was not competent enough to dispensing a certain drug it would be my responsibility in speaking up and let the registered nurses know, so that I could shadow them and have the opportunity to learn help me in future practice and administration.
First, here is some important background information about Pharmacists. A Pharmacist is someone who is trained and licensed to distribute medicinal drugs and to advise on their use. According to the Occupational Outlook Handbook Pharmacists do all of the following: "Fill prescriptions, verify proper amounts of medication to give to patients, check whether the prescription will interact negatively with other drugs that a patient is taking or conditions the patient has, instruct patients on how to and when to take a prescribed medicine, Advise patients on potential side effects they may experience from taking the medicine, Advise patients about general health topics, such as diet, exercise, managing stress, and on other issues, such as what equipment or supplies would be best for a health problem, Keep records and do other administrative tasks, Complete insurance forms and work with insurance companies to be sure that patients get the medicine they need, Teach other healthcare practitioners about proper medication therapies for patients, and lastly oversee the work of pharmacy technicians and pharmacists training."() Some pharmacists participate in compounding, where they create medications by mixing ingredients themselves. Pharmacists tha...
Firstly, the main role of a pharmacist is to dispense medicines to their patients according to the prescription given. Before this, they have to ensure that they delivering the right drug, the strength and dosage of the medicine are appropriate, as well as ensuring the medication is safety and can work effectively in the human body. (Swanson, 2005)