scholarly journals Usability Testing of a Mobile App to Report Medication Errors Anonymously: Mixed-Methods Approach (Preprint)

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Doris George ◽  
Mohamed Azmi Hassali ◽  
Amar-Singh HSS
Keyword(s):  
Health Care ◽  
Medication Error ◽  
Medication Errors ◽  
Usability Testing ◽  
Mobile App ◽  
Error Reporting ◽  
Medication Error Reporting ◽  
System Usability Scale ◽  
Mean Time ◽  
Doctors And Nurses

BACKGROUND Reporting of medication errors is one of the essential mechanisms to identify risky health care systems and practices that lead to medication errors. Unreported medication errors are a real issue; one of the identified causes is a burdensome medication error reporting system. An anonymous and user-friendly mobile app for reporting medication errors could be an alternative method of reporting medication error in busy health care settings. OBJECTIVE The objective of this paper is to report usability testing of the Medication Error Reporting App (MERA), a mobile app for reporting medication errors anonymously. METHODS Quantitative and qualitative methods were employed involving 45 different testers (pharmacists, doctors, and nurses) from a large tertiary hospital in Malaysia. Quantitative data was retrieved using task performance and rating of MERA and qualitative data were retrieved through focus group discussions. Three sessions, with 15 testers each session, were conducted from January to March 2018. RESULTS The majority of testers were pharmacists (23/45, 51%), female (35/45, 78%), and the mean age was 36 (SD 9) years. A total of 135 complete reports were successfully submitted by the testers (three reports per tester) and 79.2% (107/135) of the reports were correct. There was significant improvement in mean System Usability Scale scores in each session of the development process (P<.001) and mean time to report medication errors using the app was not significantly different between each session (P=.70) with an overall mean time of 6.7 (SD 2.4) minutes. Testers found the app easy to use, but doctors and nurses were unfamiliar with terms used especially medication process at which error occurred and type of error. Although, testers agreed the app can be used in the future for reporting, they were apprehensive about security, validation, and abuse of feedback featured in the app. CONCLUSIONS MERA can be used to report medication errors easily by various health care personnel and it has the capacity to provide feedback on reporting. However, education on medication error reporting should be provided to doctors and nurses in Malaysia and the security of the app needs to be established to boost reporting by this method.

scholarly journals P25 Incidents involving paediatric parenteral nutrition

2020 ◽  
Vol 105 (9) ◽  
pp. e19.1-e19
Author(s):  
Kouzhu Zhu ◽  
Andrea Gill
Keyword(s):  
Parenteral Nutrition ◽  
Medication Error ◽  
Total Parenteral Nutrition ◽  
Medication Errors ◽  
Error Reporting ◽  
List Type ◽  
Error Type ◽  
Safe Medication ◽  
Medication Error Reporting ◽  
Coordinating Council

AimParenteral nutrition (PN) is one of the medications most frequently reported to be involved in medication errors in hospital.1 PN is a class of high alert medications listed by The Institute for Safe Medication Practices.2 Medication errors involving PN may have potentially serious consequences especially in infants.3 The purpose of this study was to determine the type of incidents reported, who reported it, severity of incidents and the part of the process involved in the error with the aim of ensuring quality and safety in PN processes.MethodThe incidents involving PN reported on the Ulysses system in a specialist children’s hospital were surveyed between April 2018 and March 2019. Incidents were assigned to different error-type categories. We focused on the whole process of prescribing, transcription, preparation, and administration of PN. Severity classification was based on the National Coordinating Council for Medication Error Reporting and Prevention (NCC MERP) index.4ResultsThere were 34 incidents involving PN ranging from 1 to 8 per month. Job titles who reported these incidents were nurses (16 incidents), pharmacists (14 incidents), dieticians (2 incidents) and unknown (2 incidents). The most common types of incidents were omitted medicine/dose (7 incidents), labelling error (6 incidents), wrong quantity supplied (4 incidents) and wrong/unclear dose (4 incidents). The processes during which the incident had occurred were administration/supply of a medicine (14 incidents), preparation of medicines/dispensing in a pharmacy (13 incidents) and prescribing (7 incidents). The majority of incidents (82.4%, 28/34) were assigned category C (no harmful consequences), while 14.7% (5/34) and 2.9% (1/34) were assigned to category B (an error occurred but the error did not reach the patient) and category D (an error occurred that reached the patient and required monitoring to confirm that it resulted in no harm to the patient and/or required intervention to preclude harm) respectively. The following actions have been taken to try to prevent error with PN: training, providing information, introduction of new labels, changes to the profiles on infusion pumps, reinforcing independent checking and the increased use of standard PN solutions.ConclusionNurses and pharmacists are the main reporters of incidents of PN. Omitted medicine/dose is the most common incident reported. The majority of errors involved administration of PN. The majority of all incidents did not cause harm to patients.ReferencesRinke ML, Bundy DG, Velasquez CA, et al. Interventions to reduce pediatric medication errors: a systematic review[J]. Pediatrics, 2014, 134(2):338–60.Institute for Safe Medication Practices. ISMP List of High-Alert Medications in Acute Care Settings. Horsham, PA. Available from: http://www.ismp.org/Tools/institutionalhighAlert.asp (accessed January 15, 2017)NHS/PSA/W/2017/005,Risk of severe harm and death from infusing total parenteral nutrition too rapidly in babies. Available from: https://improvement.nhs.uk/news-alerts/infusing-total-parenteral-nutrition-too-rapidly-in-babies/National Coordinating Council for Medication Error Reporting and Prevention. NCC MERP Index for Categorizing Medication Errors. Available from http://www.nccmerp.org/sites/default/files/indexColor2001-06-12.pdf (accessed March 10, 2017)

National Program for Medication Error Reporting and Benchmarking: Experience with MedMARx

2001 ◽  
Vol 36 (5) ◽  
pp. 509-513 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marjorie A Shaw Phillips
Keyword(s):  
Medication Error ◽  
Medication Errors ◽  
Careful Analysis ◽  
Error Reporting ◽  
National Database ◽  
Patient Harm ◽  
Near Misses ◽  
Medication Error Reporting ◽  
Causes Of Errors ◽  
Reporting Rates

This article explains the value of moving to a standardized national reporting program for medication errors. Early benchmarking activities related to medication errors were ineffective due to difficulties in reporting and the stigma associated with higher reporting rates. One institution's participation and experience with MedMARxSM (an Internet-accessible program for tracking and analyzing medication error reports with a link to an anonymous national database) is described, and some useful features of the program are highlighted. Ninety-five percent (95%) of the errors reported in the database did not result in patient harm, yet these records provide information that may guide efforts to reduce errors. Participation in the MedMARx program has helped our institution's medication error reporting program focus on performance improvement through more careful analysis of the causes of errors and “near misses.”

scholarly journals The Effective Strategies to Avoid Medication Errors and Improving Reporting Systems

Medicines ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 8 (9) ◽  
pp. 46
Author(s):  
Abbas Al Mutair ◽  
Saad Alhumaid ◽  
Abbas Shamsan ◽  
Abdul Rehman Zia Zaidi ◽  
Mohammed Al Mohaini ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Medication Error ◽  
Medication Errors ◽  
The United States ◽  
Population Based ◽  
Error Reporting ◽  
Effective Strategies ◽  
Medication Error Reporting ◽  
Background Population ◽  
Safety Improvement ◽  
Reporting Systems

Background: Population-based studies from several countries have constantly shown excessively high rates of medication errors and avoidable deaths. An efficient medication error reporting system is the backbone of reliable practice and a measure of progress towards achieving safety. Improvement efforts and system changes of medication error reporting systems should be targeted towards reductions in the likelihood of injury to future patients. However, the aim of this review is to provide a summary of medication errors reporting culture, incidence reporting systems, creating effective reporting methods, analysis of medication error reports, and recommendations to improve medication errors reporting systems. Methods: Electronic databases (PubMed, Ovid, EBSCOhost, EMBASE, and ProQuest) were examined from 1 January 1998 to 30 June 2020. 180 articles were found and 60 papers were ultimately included in the review. Data were mined by two reviewers and verified by two other reviewers. The search yielded 684 articles, which were then reduced to 60 after the deletion of duplicates via vetting of titles, abstracts, and full-text papers. Results: Studies were principally from the United States of America and the United Kingdom. Limited studies were from Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Korea, Japan, Greece, France, Saudi Arabia, and Egypt. Detection, measurement, and analysis of medication errors require an active rather than a passive approach. Efforts are needed to encourage medication error reporting, including involving staff in opportunities for improvement and the determination of root cause(s). The National Coordinating Council for Medication Error Reporting and Prevention taxonomy is a classification system to describe and analyze the details around individual medication error events. Conclusion: A successful medication error reporting program should be safe for the reporter, result in constructive and useful recommendations and effective changes while being inclusive of everyone and supported with required resources. Health organizations need to adopt an effectual reporting environment for the medication use process in order to advance into a sounder practice.

scholarly journals Potential Medication Errors in Electronic Prescribing in A Primary Health Care

2019 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 45-54
Author(s):  
Rizki Siti Nurfitria ◽  
Rima Nur Adillah Effendi ◽  
Deni Iskandar
Keyword(s):  
Health Care ◽  
Medication Errors ◽  
Electronic Prescribing ◽  
Error Reporting ◽  
Prescription Data ◽  
Electronic Prescription ◽  
Prescribing Indicators ◽  
Outpatient Prescription ◽  
Medication Error Reporting ◽  
A Company

An effort to reduce medication errors is to use drugs prescription electronically[1,2,4]. However, there needs to be an evaluation of this system, because this system is not free from errors in medication. This study aimed to find out the description of prescribing flow, to examine electronic prescription completeness, and find out the potential medication errors that occur in the prescribing phase of electronic prescription using prescribing indicators[1,5,9,10]. This study used observational method by taking general practice outpatient prescription data of March 2018 in a company health service located in Bandung and analyzed descriptively[6,7,8]. Electronic prescription of medicines at this health care was made and inputted by doctors. When an error occured on a computer system, the doctor would prescribe it manually so that the patient can still be served. Incompleteness of the most common recipe was on administrative requirements where all prescriptions did not listed the doctor's practice permit, patient's gender, patient's weight, telephone number of the place of practice, and patient's contact number. Medication errors had the most potential for the occurrence of prescription writing with two or more drugs interacting and this error was classified as category D according to The National Coordinating Council for Medication Error Reporting and Prevention (NCC-MERP).  

Medication errors reported to the National Medication Error Reporting System in Malaysia: a 4-year retrospective review (2009 to 2012)

2016 ◽  
Vol 72 (12) ◽  
pp. 1515-1524 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. Samsiah ◽  
Noordin Othman ◽  
Shazia Jamshed ◽  
Mohamed Azmi Hassali ◽  
W. M. Wan-Mohaina
Keyword(s):  
Medication Error ◽  
Medication Errors ◽  
Retrospective Review ◽  
Reporting System ◽  
Error Reporting ◽  
Medication Error Reporting ◽  
Error Reporting System

scholarly journals Improving patient safety through identifying barriers to reporting medication errors among nurses: an integrative review

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Agani Afaya ◽  
Kennedy Diema Konlan ◽  
Hyunok Kim Do
Keyword(s):  
Medication Error ◽  
Medication Errors ◽  
Feedback System ◽  
Medication Administration ◽  
Integrative Review ◽  
Error Reporting ◽  
Medication Error Reporting ◽  
Inadequate Knowledge ◽  
Uniform Definition ◽  
Definition Of

Abstract Background: The aim of the third WHO challenge released in 2017 was to attain a global commitment to lessen the severity and to prevent medication-related harm by 50% within the next five years. To achieve this goal, comprehensive identification of barriers to reporting medication errors is imperative.Objective: This review aimed to identify studies that investigated barriers to reporting medication administration errors among nurses, systematically summarize the findings to make recommendations for improving error reporting, and for future investigation.Design: An integrative review Review methods: PubMed, Web of Science, EMBASE and the Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature (CINAHL) including Google scholar were searched to identify published studies on barriers to medication error reporting from January 2016 to December 2020. The reviewers independently assessed the quality of all the included studies using the Mixed Methods Appraisal Tool (MMAT) version 2018.Results: Of the 10937 articles reviewed, 14 studies were included. The main themes and subthemes identified after the integration of results from qualitative and quantitative studies were; organizational barriers (inadequate reporting systems, management behavior, and unclear definition of medication error), and professional and individual barriers (fear of management/colleagues/lawsuit, individual reasons and inadequate knowledge of errors).Conclusion: It is not expected that nurses will freely report medication errors in a fearful, punitive, and blaming culture. Providing an enabling environment void of punitive measures and blame culture is imperative for nurses to report medication errors. To minimize the burden on nurses reporting medication errors, an effective, non-time consuming, and uncomplicated anonymous system is required. An open feedback system for motivating or rewarding nurses for reporting medication errors is imperative and will therefore increase the rate of error reporting. Policymakers, managers, and nurses should agree on a uniform definition of what constitutes medication error to enhance nurses' ability to report.

scholarly journals Implementation of an audit with feedback knowledge translation intervention to promote medication error reporting in health care: a protocol

2015 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Alison M. Hutchinson ◽  
Anne E. Sales ◽  
Vanessa Brotto ◽  
Tracey K. Bucknall
Keyword(s):  
Health Care ◽  
Knowledge Translation ◽  
Medication Error ◽  
Error Reporting ◽  
Medication Error Reporting

Medication Without Harm: Developing optimal medication error reporting systems

2021 ◽  
Vol 16 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yuko Shiima ◽  
Muzaffar Malik ◽  
Michael Okorie
Keyword(s):  
Medication Error ◽  
Medication Errors ◽  
Traditional Approach ◽  
Incident Reporting ◽  
Error Reporting ◽  
Contributing Factors ◽  
Medication Error Reporting ◽  
Incident Reporting Systems ◽  
Reporting Systems ◽  
Life Threatening

: Medication errors are amongst the most frequently occurring health care related incidents and have the potential to lead to life-threatening harm to patients. An incident reporting system is a traditional approach to improvement of patient safety and entails the retrieval of information from incident reports. This not only provides a better understanding of causes and contributing factors but also enables the collection of data on the severity of incidents, system deficiencies and the role of human factors in safety incidents. Medication error reporting systems are often developed as a part of larger incident reporting systems which deal with other types of incidents. Although a rise in the prevalence of medication errors has led to an increased demand for medication error reporting, little is known about characteristics and limitations of medication error reporting systems. The authors broach the subject of medication error reporting systems and propose a more robust and standardized approach.

scholarly journals Exploring Nurses' Knowledge of Medication Error Reporting

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Karina Santos
Keyword(s):  
Critical Care ◽  
Medication Error ◽  
Medication Errors ◽  
Thinking Skills ◽  
Critical Care Nurses ◽  
Near Miss ◽  
Error Reporting ◽  
Care Hospital ◽  
Institute Of Medicine ◽  
Medication Error Reporting

Managing the care of critically ill patients is a highly complex and stressful position requiring high levels of critical thinking skills and judgment. Medical errors, including medication errors continue to happen in hospitals across the nation. Despite decades of focus and efforts on this area from the Institute of Medicine and other national and federal agencies, literature suggests that medication errors in critical care are highly prevalent and underreported. The purpose of this project was to explore the knowledge base of critical care nurses in relation to medication error reporting. A survey was created, which included 10 questions that were relevant to medication errors and reporting of these in the critical care setting. No demographical data was collected on respondent nurses to protect anonymity and privacy. A total of 77 completed surveys were collected from ten critical care units at a large academic acute care hospital in Rhode Island. The results of the survey showed that the majority of nurses had no knowledge of the hospital’s policy or the official definition of a medication error as adopted by the facility. A significant number of nurses weren’t aware that near miss events are medication errors. This project found that critical care nurses and their patients would benefit from enhanced education programs aimed at closing these knowledge gaps. Providing clarification, guidelines and detailed policies and procedures may enhance their confidence, efficacy and skills to be able to adequately and consistently report all near miss events and actual medication errors thereby improving the overall culture of safety and patient outcomes.

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