Search the hub
Showing results for tags 'Medication'.
Found 1,161 results
-
Content ArticleWhere a new or under-recognised risk identified through the NHS England's review of patient safety events doesn’t meet the criteria for a National Patient Safety Alert, NHS England look to work with partner organisations, who may be better placed to take action to address the issue. To highlight this work and show the importance of recording patient safety events, they publish regular case studies. These case studies show the direct action taken in response to patient safety events recorded by organisations, staff and the public, and how their actions support the NHS to protect patients from harm.
-
Content ArticleMedication errors are common at the hospital discharge transition but there’s a lot we can do to improve this. The Royal College of Physicians have developed resource focusing on medication safety at hospital discharge that takes teams through the quality improvement process step-by-step. The project was developed in close consultation with a multidisciplinary task and finish group and with input from across health and social care, including patient and carer representatives. This enabled a better understanding of problems that cross sector boundaries, such as medication safety at the hospital discharge transition, and ensured the problem was approached from multiple perspectives. The guide and accompanying improvement tool templates are available to download below.
-
Content ArticleThis report by the Care Quality Commission (CQC) looks at medication safety in NHS trusts, focusing on the role of medication safety officers.
-
Content ArticleThis report by the Healthcare Safety Investigation Branch (HSIB) has been published as part of a local pilot, which has been launched to evaluate HSIB’s ability to carry out effective investigations occurring between specific hospitals and trusts. After an evaluation, it will be decided whether this model can be implemented more widely by HSIB. This investigation reviewed the case of a woman who was taken to an emergency department by ambulance in April 2021, following a 999 call from her Granddaughter to the emergency operations centre. The emergency operations centre used the wrong NHS number for the patient, which was assigned to her for the duration of her stay in hospital and led to her being offered incorrect medication.
-
Content ArticleThis e-book provides an extensive overview of the day-to-day challenges posed by antimicrobial resistance, tools for setting up stewardship programmes and guidance of how to make the most of existing programmes. Its resources apply the principles of antimicrobial stewardship to a wide range of professions, populations and clinical/care settings. It was published by the British Society for Antimicrobial Chemotherapy in collaboration with the European Society of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases.
-
Content ArticleAntibiotic resistance is a natural phenomenon that happens when bacteria develop the ability to defeat the drugs designed to kill them. This case study focuses on large outbreaks of antibiotic-resistant strains of cholera and typhoid in Zimbabwe. It describes the steps taken to tackle the outbreaks, including a mass typhoid Vi-conjugate vaccine (TCV) vaccination campaign from February to March 2019 in nine suburbs of Harare that were severely affected by the outbreak.
-
Content ArticleThe Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) share their Board meetings and public sessions. Follow the link to see previous Board agenda and Board papers and recordings of the sessions.
-
Content ArticleThis best practice guideline for healthcare professionals covers optimum injection technique for people with diabetes taking injectable medications. It is an update to the original Injection Technique Matters guideline published in 2009.
-
Content ArticleThis guide for people who inject insulin or GLP-1 to treat diabetes includes information on: how to correctly inject insulin where to inject to ensure insulin and GLP-1 medication enter the body correctly how to avoid ‘Lipos’ how to store medication correctly how to dispose of needles safely.
-
Content ArticleThis checklist is for people who inject insulin or GLP-1 medication to treat their diabetes. It details the steps patients should take to ensure they inject their medication correctly and explains the impact of failing to take certain steps - such as moving injection sites and changing needles - on blood glucose control.
-
Content ArticleThere is a lack of awareness regarding the pervasive influence of the built environment on caregiving activities, and how its design could reduce risks for patients and providers. This article from Joseph et al. presents a narrative review summarising key findings that link health care facility design to key targeted safety outcomes: health care–associated infections, falls, and medication errors. It describes how facility design should be considered in conjunction with quality improvement legislation; projects under way in health systems; and the work of guideline-setting organizations, funding agencies, industry, and educational institutions. The article also charts a path forward that consolidates existing challenges and suggests what can be done about them to create safe and high-quality healthcare environments.
-
Content ArticleThe Joint Commission implemented medication management titration standards in 2017, with revisions in 2020. Researchers surveyed critical care nurses about their experiences with medication titration, use of clinical judgment when titrating, nurses’ scope and autonomy, and their moral distress. Of 781 respondents, 80% perceived the titration standards caused delays in patient care and 68% reported suboptimal care, both of which significantly and strongly predicted moral distress.
-
Content Article
Global Drug Policy Index
Steve Turner posted an article in Data and insight
The Global Drug Policy Index provides a score and ranking for each country to show how much their drug policies and their implementation align with the UN principles of human rights, health and development. It offers an important accountability and evaluation mechanism in the field of drug policy. -
Content ArticleThe aim of this study in BMJ Open was to develop quality standards that define minimal requirements for safe medication processes in nursing homes. After identifying key topics for medication safety from a systematic search for similar guidelines, prior work and discussions with experts, the authors specified the essential requirements for each key topic. They then evaluated these requirements with a piloted, two-round Delphi study. The study developed 85 quality standards for safer and resident-oriented medication in Swiss nursing homes.
-
Content ArticleThis study in the British Journal of Clinical Pharmacology involved searching electronic health records to uncover how many people in prisons have been affected by a potential problem related to their prescribed medication. Researchers looked at published studies and worked with prison healthcare staff to develop and implement prescribing safety indicators (PSIs) for prison electronic health records. The authors found that PSIs provide a significant opportunity to measure and improve medication safety for people in prisons and that more patients were affected by some PSIs than others. The study also investigated how the searches could be used more widely in prisons and interviewed 20 prison health care staff to explore this topic. The staff they spoke to said that it was important to have people who can take on leadership of the searches and to promote team-based responses to them.
-
Content ArticleChristopher Collinson was admitted to the Medical Assessment Unit at Birmingham Heartlands Hospital with suspected deep vein thrombosis and pulmonary embolism. He was admitted at 1.28pm on 14 June 2021, but was not seen by a Doctor until 9.33pm. He was later prescribed a prophylactic dose of Enoxaparin, rather than the therapeutic dose which the doctor had intended to prescribe. He collapsed at 11.00pm suffering a cardiac arrest and could not be revived. He died at 2.14am on 15 June 2021.
-
Content ArticleIn this blog for CNN health, Blake Ellis and Melanie Hicken discuss the exponential increase in the prescription of the drug Nuedexta to care home residents with dementia in the US. A CNN investigation found that the number of Nuedexta pills dispensed to care home facilities increased by nearly 400% in four years, prompting concerns that it is being inappropriately prescribed. The drug is designed to treat a rare disorder called pseudobulbar affect (PBA) which occurs in only 5% patients with dementia. State regulators have found doctors inappropriately diagnosing nursing home residents with PBA to justify using Nuedexta to treat patients whose confusion and agitation make them difficult to manage. Analysis by CNN also found that nearly half the Nuedexta claims filed with Medicare in 2015 came from doctors who had received money or other perks from the manufacturer.
-
Content ArticleThis study in the Joint Commission journal on quality and patient safety examines the impact of using unclear or misleading abbreviations on medication prescribing errors. This study analysed Medmarx data from 2004 to 2006 to determine the prevalence and impact of errors related to abbreviations. Despite dissemination of the Joint Commission's “do not use” abbreviation list, errors involving these abbreviations occurred more than 18,000 times during the study period, although few patients were harmed as a result.
-
Content ArticleIn this article, the journalist Peter Hitchens examines the link between mental illness, prescription and illegal drugs and violent acts of terrorism. He argues that more attention needs to be given to defendants' mental health record, medication history and any past substance abuse.
-
Content ArticleThis is an Early Day Motion tabled in the House of Commons on the 21st October 2021, which notes disappointment with the UK Government’s response to the Independent Medicines and Medical Devices Safety Review. The motion calls on the Government to reconsider its response and to implement all nine recommendations in their entirety, and to ensure patient safety remains paramount in any changes to regulatory approval frameworks.
-
Content Article
Parkinson’s is the fastest growing neurological condition in the world and in the UK around 145,000 people are living with the condition. When admitted to hospital, it is vital that patients with Parkinson’s get the right care and do not experience medication delays or omissions. In this blog, Dr Rowan Wathes, Associate Director of the UK Parkinson's Excellence Network at Parkinson's UK, recommends four key actions that healthcare workers can take to improve safety for people with Parkinson’s while they are in hospital. -
Content ArticleDouble-checking the administration of medications has been standard practice in paediatric hospitals around the world for decades, but there is little evidence of its effectiveness in reducing errors or harm. This study in BMJ Quality & Safety measures the association between double-checking and the occurrence and potential severity of medication administration errors. The authors found that: most nurses complied with mandated double-checking, but the process was rarely independent when not carried out independently, double-checking resulted in little difference to the occurrence and severity of errors compared with single-checking where double-checking was not mandated, but was performed, errors were less likely to occur and were less serious. They raise a question about whether the current approach to double-checking is a good use of time and resources, given the limited impact it has on medication administration errors.
-
Content Article
NHS England: Support for prescribers
Patient Safety Learning posted an article in Medication administration
NHS England has commissioned the Specialist Pharmacy Service to provide prescribers with all the support they need to: Stop prescribing medicines which are not clinically-effective or cost-effective Provide clear information to patients to help them make meaningful choices and decisions about their treatment Help people to get the benefits they want from their prescribed medicines Encourage people to ‘self-care’ and choose not to take a medicine if they don’t really need one Take positive action to reduce waste so we stop throwing away so many medicines. -
Content ArticleThe government commissioned Dr Keith Ridge, Chief Pharmaceutical Officer for England, to lead a review into the use of medication and overprescribing.
-
Content ArticleThis study, published in JAMA Network Open, looks at the effectiveness of using an evidence-based mobile app to reduce the occurrence of medication errors, compared with conventional preparation methods during simulated paediatric out-of-hospital cardiac arrest scenarios. Its results indicated a decreased rate of medication errors through use of a mobile app, suggesting this could have the potential to improve medication safety and change practices in paediatric emergency medicine.
