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Regular Medications in the Emergency Department Short Stay Unit (ReMedIES): Can Prescribing be Improved Without Increasing Resources?
- Source :
-
Hospital Pharmacy . Feb2024, Vol. 59 Issue 1, p110-117. 8p. - Publication Year :
- 2024
-
Abstract
- Background: Hospital medication errors are frequent and may result in adverse events. Data on non-prescription of regular medications to emergency department short stay unit patients is lacking. In response to local reports of regular medication omissions, a multi-disciplinary team was tasked to introduce corrective emergency department (ED) process changes, but with no additional financing or resources. Aim: To reduce the rate of non-prescription of regular medications for patients admitted to the ED Short Stay Unit (SSU), through process change within existing resource constraints. Methods: A pre- and post-intervention observational study compared regular medication omission rates for patients admitted to the ED SSU. Included patients were those who usually took regular home medications at 08:00 or 20:00. Omissions were classified as clinically significant medications (CSMs) or non-clinically significant medications (non-CSMs). The intervention included reinforcement that the initially treating acute ED doctor was responsible for prescription completion, formal checking of prescription presence at SSU handover rounds, double-checking of prescription completeness by the overnight SSU lead nurse and junior doctor, and ED pharmacist medication reconciliation for those still identified as having regular medication non-prescription at 07:30. Results: For the 110 and 106 patients in the pre- and post-intervention periods, there was a non-significant reduction in the CSM omission rate of −11% (95% CI: −23 to 2), from 41% (95% CI: 32-50) to 30% (95% CI: 21-39). Conclusion: Non-prescription of regular CSMs for SSU patients was not significantly reduced by institution of work practice changes within existing resource constraints. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Subjects :
- *MEDICATION error prevention
*LENGTH of stay in hospitals
*HOSPITAL emergency services
*SCIENTIFIC observation
*CONFIDENCE intervals
*NONPRESCRIPTION drugs
*PATIENTS
*HOSPITAL admission & discharge
*PRE-tests & post-tests
*HOSPITAL wards
*DRUG prescribing
*DESCRIPTIVE statistics
*QUALITY assurance
*PHYSICIAN practice patterns
*MEDICAL prescriptions
*RESOURCE-limited settings
Subjects
Details
- Language :
- English
- ISSN :
- 00185787
- Volume :
- 59
- Issue :
- 1
- Database :
- Academic Search Index
- Journal :
- Hospital Pharmacy
- Publication Type :
- Academic Journal
- Accession number :
- 174756262
- Full Text :
- https://doi.org/10.1177/00185787231194999