New approach cuts hospital medicine errors

A new way of managing medicines in hospitals could significantly reduce the incidence of medication errors, an Irish study has found.

A medication error is a mistake involving a medication. This could include a mistake with the dose, adding a medication that should not be present or missing out on a medication altogether.  Such errors can affect how a drug works or could result in a patient requiring further medical care. A small number of errors even have the potential to cause serious harm.

The study, the first of its kind in Ireland, was carried out by researchers at Trinity College Dublin (TCD) and the pharmacy department of Tallaght Hospital. It involved doctors and hospital pharmacists taking a more collaborative approach to the management of medicines within the hospital setting.

This approach involved doctors and pharmacists working together at the time of admission, during the hospital stay and at discharge. With standard care, a hospital pharmacist would be involved at the time of admission and during the stay, but not at the time of discharge and they would not have the same degree of communication and collaboration with doctors.

The study showed that this new approach led to a 78% reduction in the number of patients experiencing medication errors at the time of admission to hospital, and a 79% reduction in errors at the time of discharge.
Details of this study are published in the journal, BMJ Quality & Safety.

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