The first health care system examined in detail was located in East Los Angeles. East Los Angeles is predominately composed of Hispanic and African American residences, two ethnicities that have an increased risk of developing diabetes. Many of the residents in this portion of Los Angeles are uninsured and rely on either the emergency room and other safety net providers to manage their chronic disease. In order to mitigate the impact of the uninsured and to provide long lasting comprehensive care Dr. Peters, a diabetologist that treats patients in East Los Angeles, developed an innovative paradigm that effectively turns nurses into autonomous diabetologist.…
Managing medications for these patients thus becomes an important safety issue. A way of managing these medications is through medication reconciliation. In medication reconciliation, a member of the health care team compares the medications a patient should be using to the new medications that are ordered for the patient and resolves any inconsistencies and discrepancies (The Joint Commission, 2017). The NPSG intends to help organizations decrease the amount of medication errors and negative patient outcomes related to medication discrepancies. Therefore, standards were created in the NPSG that focused on risk points of medication reconciliation such as maintaining and communicating accurate patient medication information, patient education on safe medication use, and coordinating information during transitions of care (The Joint Commission,…
Administering medications to patients is a daily task performed by almost all nurses. In the Bachelor of Nursing curriculum, the 7 rights and 3 checks of medication administration is taught, practiced and performed by all nursing students to ensure proper habits are developed. The problem occurs when health care providers are no longer under supervision of an instructor, and short cuts are acquired. These short cuts, although time saving, ultimately cause more complications for the patient and the health care system. As a group, we have found that CARNA’s Medication Administration Guideline (2016) is not being implemented or enforced as it should to prevent medication errors.…
Although some nursing errors cause no harm, as many as 400,000 patients die annually in hospitals from fatal but preventable mishaps (James, 2013). In efforts to decrease these problems, on April 4, 2004 the FDA ruled in favor of making bar-code wristbands mandatory for medication administration. By using these bar-code wristbands patients admitted to the hospital are directly linked to their medical records. Nurses are able to scan the bracelet and open the computerized record with all of the patient’s prescribed drugs, allergies, etc. This system includes a safety setting that matches the scanned drug with the patient’s medical record to ensure that the correct drug is administered in a safe dosage through the proper route at the correct time.…
Of all these medication errors 400,000 of these errors yearly have been reported that they could have been preventable (Hunter, 2011). The advantages of electronic medication administration records are that the five rights of medication administration are verified; when a medication that requires lab work the patient’s lab work will appear allowing the nurse to view the value before administering the medication; warning boxes appear when information does not match, for instance: “medication is for a different patient” (Hunter, 2011). During a study conducted by Karen Hunter published in the Online Journal of Nursing Informatics electronic medication administration records as well as barcoding systems where placed in hospitals. Sixty-two percent of the nurses stated they felt safer using the system and that the system actually prevented them from making a medication error (Hunter,…
Some doctors keep on changing prescriptions, forcing pharmacies to save several companies’ prescription drugs with the same effect and this is the same problem regarding hospitals, which can also recommend other ones. Some medicine are finally used only once, expire and are returned…
Medication reconciliation should ideally begin within ambulatory care-long before a hospital admission. As health care cost continue to increase Vogenberg and DiLascia draws numbers into perspectives, “according to the Healthcare Research and Quality, approximately 838,000 emergency department visits and 1.8 million hospitalizations annually are due to ADEs, with an estimated $2.6 billion in total hospital costs” (2013, p.1). Cost concerns continue as Car et al. argues, the United States of American financial costs estimated related to medication errors caused from preventable adverse drug reactions yearly to be $17 billion (2016). Expenses no matter dollar value, from transitions among hospitals or ambulatory primary care visits are directly linked to the frequency and accuracy of patient medication lists reviewed.…
Although it is difficult to truly assess adherence, by analyzing pharmacy claims healthcare organizations can focus on and make outreach attempts to members identified as high risk (due to filling a medication used to treat a chronic condition) to help them become or stay current on their medications and tailor treatment plans for them through the use of case management nurses. Providing more one on one physician/patient interaction during routine visits and educational material that is easy to understand are tactics that may help bridge the gap in prescription refill adherence and continue the forward drive to successful preventive…
The study that is summarized aimed to further delve into the current roles of hospitalization in prescribing error hazards and medication-related communication as patients are taken back and forth to ambulatory care. Many hazards come about in a hospital setting but a prescribing error is caused by the individual working for the health-care institution. The change-over between diverse levels of health-care, like hospital admission and discharge, display a large threat to the quality and continuance of drug therapy and that is what we will be discussing. The writing that is being summarized displays a clear understanding on how someone can analyze and decipher a given set of data using inferential statistics.…
At the beginning of my nursing career most of the medical terms I’ve come to use and understand I had while little knowledge about. Some of these terms I picked up in practical experience and other I learnt in lectures. One of these terms has come to be very important in my nursing career and that is medication management. At first my understanding of this concept was very limited and I didn’t understand many of the different factors that all came together to make up the whole. Over my studies this understanding has evolved and become a core part of my nursing practice.…
Medication error is defined by many different things, whether it is administering medication to the wrong patient or giving a patient too much of the medication ordered (Xu, C., 2014, p. 286). All medication errors should be held as an emergency and should always be reported. The use of technology is starting to be used to help minimize the amount of medication errors, but the nurse should not assume that the technology will not make mistakes (Xu, C., 2014, p. 286). The registered nurse should always double check the medication being dispensed is the medication on the written…
Rational for Reducing Medication Errors Medication errors are the most common cause of accidental harm to individuals. These errors contribute to side effects that compromise a patient’s safety and are a large financial problem to a facility. Preventing medication errors, which happen at every level of the medication administration process, is the primary concern for maintaining a safe and effective hospital. One third of all errors harming patients occur during medication administration and is determined a high-risk activity performed by the nurse (Cloete, 2014). Safe and effective medication administration is key to quality patient care and facility operations.…
2. When should medication reconciliation occur? Who is the primary person responsible for medication reconciliation at your site? On arrival at the ER.…
My preceptor IPPE consisted of visits to Sanford Hospital’s cardiology floor where I got to shadow Dr. Kirsten Johnson. My first experience occurred on October 6, 2016 from 0800 – 1100, and the second work period was October 20, 2016 from 1630 – 1930. I enjoyed each visit to the hospital and felt very welcomed by Dr. Johnson. The only hospital setting experience I had was my IPPE II at Avera Queen of Peace in Mitchell, SD.…
Medication Reconciliation in the Hospital Setting The transition of patients from an acute care setting to a home setting is often challenging and stressful. It can be complex for the patient to understand the instructions for discharge and, more importantly, it can be challenging and dangerous when it comes to ensuring the patient understands the medication reconciliation process. Successful transition to home is multifaceted and depends partially on an accurate and complete overview of all medications with the patient. This is an imperative safety measure across the continuum of care (Ruggiero, Smith, Copeland, Boxer, 2015).…