Reducing medication errors: the role of e-prescribing
Medication errors are patient safety incidents involving medicines in which there has been an error in the process of prescribing, dispensing, preparing, administering, monitoring, or providing medicine advice, regardless of whether any harm occurred.
Even in these technologically advanced times, the rate of medical errors - or at least the reporting of these errors - seems to be on the increase. Reported errors jumped from 36,335 in 2005 to 86,085 in 2007, according to the National Patient Safety Agency, which last year estimated that more than 200 patients every month need further treatment or die because of medication mistakes.
The use of an electronic prescribing and medicines administration solution (ePMA) is a means to help health services improve their management of medicines. Such a solution can reduce risk and improve efficiency; and deliver additional financial benefits in areas such reduced litigation. The NPSA estimates that preventable harm from medicines could cost more than £750m each year in England.
In a recent study carried out at an Australian ePMA customer site over a period of six months, the notable benefits were included: illegibility - reduced from 13% to 0%; missed doses with no reason - reduced from 7% to 0.4%; high risk incident reports - reduced by 50%.
Gary Mooney Principal Consultant, iSOFT UK, says: "The introduction of ePMA is a significant undertaking for any NHS trust. It is not about installing an IT product; ePMA requires a fundamental shift in how an organisation communicates and operates in relation to the management of medicines.
"However, an enterprise class ePMA solution can deliver significant improvements for patient safety, clinical effectiveness and operational performance that can provide a compelling return on investment for most NHS trusts."
For more information, please contact Gary Mooney, principal consultant, 07766 474 298 or gary.mooney@isofthealth.com. |
Sponsored feature: iSOFT
