Medication Error Prevention Act 2000

Haw, C., Stubbs, J. and Dickens, G. (2014). Barriers to the reporting of medication administration errors and near misses: an interview

Medication administration errors occurs 34 percent more often than any other preventable error. These errors directly impact patient safety. According to the Institute of Medicine (IOM), there are approximately one million patients harmed in hospitals across the United States. Studies support barcode scanning medication during medication administration can prevent this type of medication error (Marx, K., Stoudenmire, L.L., & Manasco, K.B., 2013). It is report that barcode medication administration (BCMA) may reduce medication administration errors by 86 percent (Gooder, V., 2012).

Pharmacy technicians work under the supervision of a pharmacist helping prepare and give out medications. It is very crucial for a pharmacy technician to be aware of their work at all times and check their work more than once. Pharmacy technicians need to ensure any medication they have prepared has been done properly, if not that could potentially harm the patients. Pharmacist trust their technicians will always follow system-based processes and provide an extra layer of safety. Working as a pharmacy technician it is important to communicate with the pharmacist and address any questions or concerns, not asking a simple question could cost the life of a patient.

Staff work with the same residents day after day, and the CMs know what the residents take for medications every day. An intervention for preventing the medication error from happing again is implementing a better system in which the medications are administered. First, the medication administration record (MAR), could become computerized. This way it makes it difficult for the CM to sign off all the medications at once for the residents when setting them up. This would alert the nurse that all the residents were getting their medication at the same time, which is impossible. Secondly, the way the resident receives his medications should consist of the CM stating what each of the medications are so the resident is aware what he is taking. By implementing this, the CM can do the final check of administering the medications. If the medications themselves could be barcoded and scanned in before popping the medication in the medication cup, this would help the CM double check the five rights as well. A bar-code electronic medical administration record (eMAR) technology associates several technologies into the medication administration process to provide the correct medication, dose, time, route, and patient. This technology will provide an additional check and implement safety (Poon et al., 2010). If the wrong medication is

Although the veterans are asked their full name and last four of their social security, the scanning provides the added comfort of providing the security or safety for everyone involved. The outcome of this research will show data that will be analyzed pre and post implementation of the BMCA system, which the approach is to show a significant change in the medication error rate. The outcome will be based on pre and post implementation of the barcode medication system by measuring the medication error rate. There will be 100 veteran patients that will be assessed prior to implementation of the BCMA, and 100 veterans post implementations. Observers that will analyze administration errors, presence or absence of an error in the dose of medication administered during the observation period.

In order to effectuate this process, patient copayments or cost sharing and current dispensing parameters need to be adjusted in order to protect both patients’ out of pocket costs and pharmacists who are providing the health care service in compliance with state and federal mandates despite the quantity being

(September 30, 2013) - The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) published amended rules applicable to the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) of 1996 in January 2013. As explained by the Secretary of HHS, healthcare has experienced significant changes since HIPAA was enacted in 1996. The implementation of electronic medical records is just one of those changes. The new HIPAA regulations are designed to provide patients with better privacy protection, and additional rights not included in the original HIPAA rules. The new rules became effective on Sept. 23, 2013.

Therefore, they have a moral, legal, and ethical duty to protect the sensitive information that they come across as they conduct diagnostic tests or take patients through treatment procedures (American Health Information Management Association, 2008). Within the context of electronic health records, the AHIMA documentation guidelines offer a high degree of control to prevent unauthorized access to such sensitive information. Accuracy, consistency, and completeness of clinical information are highly regarded since they assist in proper coding and reporting of information, which facilitate proper and accurate medical care (Parman, 2014). The documentation guidelines also support the report of all the necessary healthcare elements, such as diagnostic and procedure codes, since the information is required for external reporting. In case of conflict, ambiguity, or incomplete information, health care providers are supposed to clarify through writing or verbally to eliminate medical errors that may put the patients’ lives in jeopardy. AHIMA is also aware of the possible fraudulent dealings in medical care, especially those relating to insurance coverage. Therefore, healthcare providers should avoid documentation practices that increase payment or distort data against federal or state regulations and statutes (American Health Information Management Association, 2008). Evidently, AHIMA

issues to be able to prevent them from happening again and it helps to do a better job.

Unsettled standards. Nationwide network still misses essential rules and standards for e-prescription messages and their validation, drug terminology and classification, application forms, medication lists and many other meeting points among physicians, pharmacies (both chain and independent) and providers.

Technological advances have improved patient safety and quality of care. E-prescribing is a technological development that can contribute to patient safety by reducing prescribing errors. The Food and Drug Administration receives about 300 medication errors a month. This number can be reduced if all health care settings are adopters of e-prescribing. Our solution to medication errors is here, it is just a matter of implementing it into our

"Medication errors results from the interaction of multiple factors that include regulatory environment, organizational leadership and commitment, management policies and procedures, complexity of tasks involved, work culture, and physical environment" (Chaudhury, Mahmood, & Valente, 2009, p. 229). Health care services that nurses perform in the hospital environments are physically and psychologically intense, which can potentially result in burnout, stress, and medication errors. Crowded and poorly designed work spaces are factors that contribute to staff stress, resulting in the risk of increase medication errors (Chaudhury et al., 2009). Ulrich, Zimring, Quan, Joseph, and Choudhary, 2004 (as cited in Chaudhury et al., 2009) "argued that reduction of nursing staff stress and error by physical environmental dimensions (such as air quality, acoustics, lighting, and so on) can have a significant impact on staff health and efficiency" (p. 230). There is limited research on the how physical environment affects medication errors. For this study, the research question was: "What is the nurses' perception of the role of the physical

Technology has become an essential part of our everyday life therefore, it makes sense that doctors and hospitals get rid of the old fashioned paper charting and use technology to access patient records. Electronic health records (EHR) provide quick access to information, as doctors no longer have to wait for other providers to fax previous records to them. The accessibility of Electronic Health Records assist medical providers to make quick medical care decisions, by accessing previous care provided to patients including treatment and diagnosis. Quick access to information through EHR enables health care providers to treat patients faster as there is no need for records to be mailed or

In a report by the Institute of Medicine (2006), Titled, Preventing Medication Errors, “The committee concludes that there are at least 1.5 million preventable adverse drug events (ADE’s) that occur in the United States each year.” These numbers are astonishing given the number of adults that are taking prescription medications daily. Most of the errors occur during the prescribing and administering steps and during an average hospital stay, a patient can expect to have one medication error occur every day (Institute of Medicine, 2006).

The word medication is defined as :” A drug or other form of medicine that is used to treat or prevent disease”(Oxford English Dictionary, 2004).