Therapeutic duplication on the general surgical wards

Therapeutic duplication is the practice of prescribing multiple medications for the same indication or purpose without a clear distinction of when one agent should be administered over another. This is a problem that occurs frequently, especially on electronic prescribing records (EPR) as the medication chart is not always reviewed before prescribing. The aim of this Quality Improvement Project (QIP) was to reduce therapeutic duplication to 0% through educating the general surgical team. Prescriptions of all general surgical patients in the surgical wards were reviewed daily for a month. EPR was used to check if there were any duplications or identical class of drug prescribed. Patient documentation was thoroughly checked to rule out if the duplication was intentional. Following this, if duplication was still unclear, the relevant teams would be contacted for clarification. Any unintentional error was removed, and data was collected. The QIP results were presented to the local general surgical meeting and our fellow colleagues were educated on the importance of safe prescribing and on how to prevent prescribing errors. The baseline of therapeutic duplications on the general surgical wards was 9% prior to our first cycle. Following the presentation of data and educating the surgical team at the surgical meeting, the number of errors seemingly reduced, however, there was a jump to 22% of therapeutic duplication on a particular Friday which brought the average of therapeutic duplication to 8.77%. The team was reminded again about the importance of correct prescribing and after the second cycle, the number of errors reduced to 5.29%. For the third audit cycle, the team was presented with the reaudited data and following this, the number of errors dropped down to 3.12%. Therapeutic duplication should never occur as this could cause a risk to patient harm. Through educating the surgical team and reminding our team regularly, the average number of errors reduced by more than half of the original number. In our hospital, the main source of safety net is through pharmacists and nurses, however as shown, this is not enough to prevent all therapeutic errors. A more sustainable intervention such as an alert on EPR prior to prescribing may be required to maintain a low therapeutic duplication average and prevent patient harm.

Medication charts and consent to treatment documentation audit in an acute mixed in-patient psychiatry unit in south Manchester

AimsThe main aim of this audit was to look at documentation in medication charts in an acute mixed inpatient unit in South Manchester. In addition, we also looked at completion of capacity assessment and consent to treatment forms as appropriate.BackgroundSafe prescription, administration and monitoring of medication is key to effective patient care. Due to the busy nature of inpatient hospital wards, errors do unfortunately occur both with the medications, and with the recording of their administration.We will use a data collection tool to collect data as per standards described in our local GMMH policy. The medication chart will be used as the standard, as this is the current chart that is in use in the Trust.MethodData were collected from 31 medication charts for inpatients admitted in the ward between the 5/12/19 to 18/12/19. We captured data from each page of the medication chart that required a record to be made by any staff, including details of prescribing, administration and pharmacist checks. Data were recorded as either Yes/No or NA (Not Applicable). Data were then summarised and analysed using MS excel.ResultOf the 31 patients, 22 (71%) had a capacity assessment form completed and 16 (52%) had a consent to treatment form completed. From the data analysis, it was clear that there are high rates of completion for the ‘essential’ parts of all prescriptions, including medicine name, dose, route and data. ‘Route’ was only recorded for 40% of prescriptions for depot medicines. Details of the administration of a medicine by a nurse was generally well-completed. For as required medications, all information relating to administration (date, time, dose and given by) were fully completed for 100% of prescriptions. For regular prescriptions however, the administration details were not as well-completed, where date of administration was recorded in 84% of prescriptions and signature in 29% of prescriptions. Unique patient identifiers are well-recorded on Page 1 of the prescription chart, though not maintained throughout the prescription chart. Nature of reaction to an allergy or sensitivity was only recorded in 6 of the 21 patients (29%).ConclusionOverall, there were good completion rates for the mandatory parts of the prescriptions. However improvements could be made for prescriptions as well as administration and pharmacy checks. The capacity assessment and consent to treatment forms could be improved upon too. We plan to put the recommendations and re-audit in 3-6 months’ time.

A study of prescription auditing in inpatient general medicine in tertiary care government hospital

Background: Irrational prescribing is a global problem. Prescription auditing can help to find the medication errors caused by the Inappropriate prescribing. It is the systematic tool for analysing the quality of medical care, including the procedures used for diagnosis and treatment.Methods: An observational, non-interventional study carried in general medicine department. A list of 10 questions were prepared to assess the appropriateness of prescribing patterns.Results: A total of 110 prescriptions were collected and audited. Out of 110 prescriptions 6 (5%) prescriptions have therapeutic duplications and 21 (19%) classes of drugs in the prescription have interactions with each other. Found 8 (7%) drug food interactions. Found 100% appropriateness of drug ordered based on patient diagnosis, dosage of drug, frequency of drug, route of administration, drug intended to have a drug order in the medication chart, medication orders are clear, legible, dated, timed, names and signed, medication chart do not have any unapproved abbreviationsConclusion: This study shows most of the prescribers need to check for drug duplication, drug-drug interactions and drug-food interactions before prescribing the medicines.

Benefits of medication charts provided at transitions of care: a narrative systematic review

ObjectivesParticularly at transitions of care points information concerning current medication tends to be incomplete. A medication chart that contains all essential information on current therapy is likely to be a helpful tool for patients and healthcare providers. We aimed to investigate any type of benefits associated with medication charts provided at transition points.MethodsA systematic review according to Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses guidelines was performed. Two databases, two online journals and two association websites dedicated to biomedicine and pharmacy issues were consulted to identify studies for the review using the search term ‘medication chart’ and synonyms. We run our search from database inception up to March 2019. Studies of any study design, intervention and population which examined the effect of paper-based medication charts were included. We extracted study results narratively and coded and classified them by themes and categories inductively by using the ‘framework method’ with content analysis. The methodological quality of the studies was assessed using the Effective Public Health Practice Project (EPHPP) tool.ResultsFrom the 846 retrieved articles, 30 studies met the inclusion criteria, mostly from Germany (18 studies) and the USA (5 studies). Thirteen studies reported a statistically significant result. In the ‘patient theme’, the most obvious benefits were an increase in medication knowledge, a reduction of medication errors and higher medication adherence. In the ‘interdisciplinary theme’, a medication chart represented a helpful tool to increase communication and inter-sectoral cooperation between healthcare providers. In the ‘theme of terms and conditions’, accuracy and currency of data are prerequisites for any positive effect. The quality of the studies was classified predominantly weak mainly due to unmet good quality criteria (no randomised controlled trials study design, no reported dropouts).ConclusionOverall, the reviewed studies suggested some benefits when using medication charts. Healthcare providers could consider using medication charts in their counselling practice. However, it is unknown whether the reported benefits lead to measurable improvement in clinical outcomes.PROSPERO registration number

Quality of antimicrobial prescribing improved by the introduction of ePrescribing at Auckland City Hospital

Improving antimicrobial prescribing is a difficult process often requiring labour-intensive, multi-modal interventions. Many hospitals have introduced ePrescribing systems but the effect on antimicrobial prescribing, without treatment choice decision support systems, has not been well described. We sought to determine whether the introduction of ePrescribing improved prescribing quality. Patient records for inpatients on four rehabilitation wards, two using ePrescribing and two using the National Medication Chart, during February 2017, were retrospectively reviewed to identify all antimicrobial prescriptions, which were then reviewed for quality. Documentation of indication was significantly better on ePrescribing wards (45/46, 98%) compared to National Medication Chart wards (47/59, 80%). Adherence to guidelines (32/46, 70% vs 33/59, 56%), appropriateness of therapy (42/46, 91% vs 50/59, 85%) and documentation of duration, stop or review dates (35/46, 76% vs 38/59, 64%) did not significantly differ. ePrescribing can improve the quality of antimicrobial prescribing when Antimicrobial Stewardship principles are used in system customisation but cannot address all factors impacting on prescribing quality.

Behavioural science and design thinking: re-framing the hospital medication chart to improve hand hygiene compliance in nurses

Given the economic and human cost related to healthcare-associated infections, any intervention that results in an improvement in hospital hygiene at a system level is worthwhile. Broadly, behavioural science and design thinking may be useful approaches to encourage staff compliance with hygiene policies. It is proposed that making a seemingly minor change to the hospital medication chart—specifically, by inserting a ‘hand hygiene’ tick box—could improve nurses' hand hygiene compliance, thus increasing the safety of administering and dispensing medication.