An intravenous medication safety system: preventing high-risk medication errors at the point of care.
Improving medication safety at the point of care--particularly for high-risk drugs--is a major concern of nursing administrators. The medication errors most likely to cause harm are administration errors related to infusion of high-risk medications. An intravenous medication safety system is designed to prevent high-risk infusion medication errors and to capture continuous quality improvement data for best practice improvement. Initial testing with 50 systems in 2 units at Vanderbilt University Medical Center revealed that, even in the presence of a fully mature computerized prescriber order-entry system, the new safety system averted 99 potential infusion errors in 8 months.
Hatcher
Irene
I
Case Management, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, 1161 21st Avenue S., Nashville, TN 37232-2415, USA.
Sullivan
Mark
M
Hutchinson
James
J
Thurman
Susan
S
Gaffney
F Andrew
FA
D000046:Academic Medical Centers; D001291:Attitude of Health Personnel; D019985:Benchmarking; D016303:Clinical Pharmacy Information Systems / Q000458:organization & administration*; D020000:Decision Support Systems, Clinical / Q000458:organization & administration; D016903:Drug Monitoring / Q000379:methods / Q000451:nursing; D004360:Drug Therapy, Computer-Assisted / Q000458:organization & administration; D006801:Humans; D007262:Infusions, Intravenous / Q000009:adverse effects* / Q000451:nursing; D007275:Injections, Intravenous / Q000009:adverse effects* / Q000451:nursing; D046609:Libraries, Digital / Q000458:organization & administration; D008508:Medication Errors / Q000451:nursing / Q000517:prevention & control* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D015403:Nursing Evaluation Research; D009741:Nursing Staff, Hospital / Q000193:education / Q000523:psychology; D019095:Point-of-Care Systems / Q000458:organization & administration*; D017410:Practice Guidelines as Topic; D012307:Risk Factors; D017751:Safety Management / Q000458:organization & administration*; D012986:Software Validation; D013714:Tennessee; D017749:Total Quality Management / Q000458:organization & administration