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AU MEDS®
Mark Your Calendar
and Visit
MedAccuracy®
at
The unSummit for Bedside Barcoding
30 April to 02 May 2008
Austin Hilton
Austin, TX
"AU MEDS ought to be used by every hospital in the United States."
Ken Baker,
Vice President and General Counsel,
Pharmacists Mutual Insurance
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An Observation Based
Method for
Detecting Medication Errors
Often referred to as the "gold standard" for measuring medication administration errors, the observation based AU MEDS system trains and certifies healthcare professionals to observe and examine each and every medication dose that is administered or omitted during observation periods.
"This approach ... is reliable; it represents
an effective mechanism for identifying
administration errors"
David Bates, MD, MSc, Chief, Division of General Medicine, Brigham & Women’s Hospital
First, the hospital uses a profile developed by Auburn University to identify a nurse to be trained in the observation method. After onsite training by our staff, this nurse observes medication administrations during peak workload periods in selected nursing units.
These bedside observations are recorded and compared to the patients' charts to identify any discrepancies between the observed administration and the physician's orders.
This review is then entered into the AU MEDS software and the nurse/observer meets with the observed nurse to validate any discrepancies as errors and to solicit assistance in seeking “clues to cause”.
The observation method is free of the
known and important limitations of all self-reporting methods:
· Observation is not subject to the provider's willingness to file a
report
· Observation identifies errors unknowingly committed by the provider
In a recent study of 2,557 doses, three different medication error
detection systems were evaluated:
· Self-reporting identified 1 error
· Chart review identified 24 errors
· Observation identified 373 errors
If errors are not detected, hospitals
cannot make the necessary improvements. The same errors will likely be
repeated frequently on the same patient.
Root causes for medication errors can occur anywhere in the delivery
system and not necessarily within the administration process. Individual
errors remain confidential. When the suspected cause for an error has been
identified, steps can then be taken by the healthcare professionals to
make system changes and reduce the likelihood that the same error will
recur.
A proprietary version of the
observation based method for detecting medication errors was developed by
Dr. Barker and his staff at Auburn University and has been used since the
early 1980s for qualifying nursing homes for Medicare/Medicaid
reimbursement.
The use of the observation method allows hospitals to identify faulty
processes, recommend systems changes and then evaluate the impact of the
changes. The observation method also reveals “clues to cause” for
focused follow-up studies.
MedAccuracy and AU MEDS
Featured in...
Although there are a variety of ways to detect medication errors, a body of evidence makes a strong case for the direct observation method in which trained observers shadow caregivers as they go through their daily routines.
American Journal of Health-System Pharmacy
Using Bar Code Technology and Medication Observation Methodology for Safer Medication Administration
For your copy click on
Then Print
MedAccuracy and AU MEDS
Featured in...
Lancaster General Reports
on the Effectiveness of the
Bridge Medical POC and AU MEDS
Lancaster General Hospital (LGH), a
521-bed
non-profit hospital that is nationally
recognized for its efficiency and high quality of care, credits the combination of Bridge Medical's MedPoint bar-coding technology and MedAccuracy's observation methodology for
providing LGH with a real-time understanding of its medication system
errors.
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