Question

List 4 technologies with potential to decrease medication errors. Discuss how these technologies decrease medication errors. 

Answer 1

Ans) Bar code technology, intravenous infusion safety systems, and electronic medication administration records can target prevention of errors in medication dispensing and administration where other technologies would not be able to intercept a preventable adverse event.

- Bar code medication administration (BCMA) systems are electronic scanning systems that intercept medication errors at the point of administration. When administering medications with BCMA, a nurse scans a bar code on the patient's wristband to confirm that the patient is the right patient.

- When health care providers have access to complete and accurate information, patients receive better medical care. Electronic health records (EHRs) can improve the ability to diagnose diseases and reduce—even prevent—medical errors, improving patient outcomes.

- Infusion pumps are one of the most widely used technologies in healthcare today. But infusion errors and pump failures can and have caused serious harm, and even death, to patients. Over a five-year period, more than 56,000 adverse events and 710 deaths associated with infusion devices were reported to FDA—more than for any other medical technology. During this period, there were 87 pump recalls.

2010 Infusion Summit ReportTo address these issues, AAMI and FDA partnered to host a summit in October 2010. The challenges and actions are contained in the summit report, "Infusing Patients Safely: Priority Issues from the AAMI/FDA Infusion Device Summit."

- Other innovations, including using robots to fill prescriptions, automated dispensing devices, and computerisation of the medication administration record, though less studied, should all eventually reduce error rates