System aims to reduce medical errors in hospital

ONE of the country’s biggest hospitals is aiming to reduce the number of patient medication errors with the introduction of an administration charting system.

However, the Hospital Pharmacists Association of Ireland (HPAI) said the shortage of clinical pharmacists in all acute hospitals means patients’ lives continue to be put at risk from medication errors.

Tallaght Hospital is piloting a drug administration chart this month aimed at reducing the amount of times patients fail to receive their recommended medication. The hospital hopes to fully introduce this new system by July.

The hospital’s medication safety project, which is funded by the Department of Health, said patients not receiving their medication at a scheduled time was a common error.

Speaking to the Irish Medical News, Tallaght hospital’s head of pharmacy Tim Delaney said this can happen due to a design flaw in the current chart which dates from 1998, when the hospital was amalgamated with the Adelaide and Meath Hospitals.

The drug administration time was left blank to provide flexibility to staff, but it became unclear whose job it was to mark the time, and sometimes staff thought medications did not need to be given.

Now a multidisciplinary team has drafted a new chart, with doctors being solely responsible for outlining the medication administration time by circling pre-printed times on the new chart, Mr Delaney said.

When a patient did not receive a medication, the error would probably not result in harm, but if repeated numerous times then there was potential for harm, he said.

The HPAI welcomed the development of the new drug administration chart in Tallaght Hospital as an example of a well-structured process redesign.

But president of the association Joan Peppard said the provision of clinical pharmacy services in acute hospitals was proven to significantly reduce patient medication errors.

A study, conducted over two years, in an acute hospital found that more than four medication errors occurred every 100 days.

Half of the medication errors were serious, while a further 40% were significant and almost 2% were lethal.