Focus on Safe Medication Practices

"Focus on Safe Medication Practices" explains how and why medication errors occur and provides strategies and procedures for both preventing and managing medication incidents. The text includes careful guidelines, prevention strategies, thought-provoking questions, and plenty of case studies. To assist readers in developing and implementing safe medication practices, the book focuses on eight essential goals - becoming aware of the issue; learning the terminology; understanding the scope and frequency of incidents; identifying common types of errors; recognizing medication incident issues within specific specialty areas; identifying potential sources of error; implementing measures to reduce the risk of incidents; and, dealing with medication incidents.

Table of Contents:
Chapter 1: Defining the Issues * Definitions * Types of Medication Incidents * Studies of Patient Safety * The Impact of Adverse Drug Events and Medication Errors * Summary * Reflective Questions Chapter 2: Why Medication Incidents Occur * Error Theory * Studies of Contributory Factors * Classification of Contributory Factors * Immediate or Common Causes of Medication Incidents * Root or System Causes of Medication Incidents * Summary * Reflective Questions Chapter 3: Prevention of Medication Incidents: Risk Management to Improve Patient Safety * Elements of Risk Management in Pharmacy * System Preventive Strategies * General Preventive Strategies for Organizations * Preventive Strategies for Pharmacies * Personal Preventive Strategies * Summary * Reflective Questions Chapter 4: Common Causes of Medication Incidents and Preventions Strategies * Illegible Handwriting * Look-Alike/Sound-Alike Medications * Verbal Prescriptions * Faxed Prescriptions * Missing Information * Abbreviations and Symbols * Calculation and Decimal Point Errors * Drug Device Errors * Lack of Patient Education/Understanding * Failed Communication with Patients * Summary * Reflective Questions Chapter 5: Underlying Root Causes and Prevention Strategies * Psychological and Human Factors * Dispensing Process * Manufacturer Issues * Reconciliation * Pharmacy Workload * Environment * Organizational Issues * Summary * Reflective Questions Chapter 6: Causes and Preventions Strategies in Specialty Practices * Pediatrics * Compounding * Nonprescription Medications * Immunization * Methadone Treatment * Summary * Reflective Questions Chapter 7: Technological Solutions to Promoting Safe Medication Practices * Computerized Physician Order Entry (CPOE) * E-prescribing * Bar Code Technology * Radio Frequency Identification * Automated Dispensing * Other Technologies That Can Reduce Medication Error Rates * Limitations of Technology in Medication Error Reduction * Automation Case Study * Unit-Dose Systems * Point-of-Care Medication Administration Systems * The Impact of Facilities Design * Summary * Reflective Questions Chapter 8: Dealing with Medication Incidents in Pharmacy * Plan of Action for Handling a Medication Incident * Protocol for Handling a Medication Incident * Incident Reporting * Root Cause Analysis * Communication of a Medication Incident/Disclosure * Staff Issues During a Medication Incident * Summary * Reflective Questions Chapter 9: Instituting Safe Medication Practices in Pharmacy * Continuous Quality Improvement * Failure Mode Effects Analysis * Self-Assessment * Other Methods for Improving Patient Safety * Developing a Patient Safety Plan * Barriers to Patient Medication Safety * Summary * Reflective Questions Appendix A: Organizations Involved in Patient Safety Appendix B: Strategies and Tools for Prevention of Specific Types of Problems Glossary Index