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Award winning Pharmacy project improves safety
Media information
For immediate release
Date: 18 June 2009
Award winning Pharmacy project improves patient safety
Waikato District Health Board was a winner at the 2009 NZ Pharmacy Awards last weekend.
The DHB's Pharmacy Services team won the Innovation in Hospital Pharmacy award for their project that highlighted the importance of clear and accurate prescribing of medication.
Pharmacy manager Jan Goddard accepted the award with project leaders Fiona McNabb, Julie Vickers and Shelley Proctor at a ceremony on Saturday evening (13 June).
Unreadable signatures, dosages and incomplete patient information are just some of the issues that the Prescribing Improvement project addressed during a three-month campaign with staff last year.
The implications of these issues are a potential risk to patient safety, Fiona McNabb said.
"Unclear handwriting can appear to be a minor issue but can lead to medication errors and incomplete patient details can potentially lead to the wrong person getting medication.
"It probably takes a fraction longer to write something fully and clearly but that can avoid a whole lot of problems later."
Ms McNabb said the project had a strong education focus.
"We were keen to raise awareness and discuss the issues with doctors.
"We also needed nurses to be more aware - and more confident about drawing errors to a doctor's attention and getting them corrected before any patient safety incident might occur," she said.
Waikato Hospital's Pharmacy team led the project with a multidisciplinary group including nursing and medical representatives.
The project started after a 2007
audit identified key factors that can lead to confusion,
misunderstandings or incorrect medication,
including:
* incomplete, incorrect or lack of patient
identification
* lack of or illegible doctor
identification
* poor handwriting that makes information
illegible or introduces guesswork
* altering prescribing
by over-writing rather than re-charting
* incomplete or
absent allergy information
* use of inappropriate
abbreviations.
Internationally, the same issues are leading many health institutions to take a 'zero tolerance' approach.
The project addressed each of these issues with a different theme chosen each fortnight to promote to staff on a series of posters, on the DHB's internal intranet and staff newsletter.
The project team attributed the success of the campaign to the use of consistent and constant education messages through a variety of methods to staff.
Waikato DHB's senior communications consultant Bee Pears and graphic designer Jeremy Tritt made a large contribution to producing material for the project.
Pharmacists also highlighted to staff, with a highlighter pen, any examples they came across and an incentives programme with chocolate fish awards, café vouchers and a restaurant voucher encouraged staff to participate.
Apart from the recognition of a project well done, the award included a $1000 prize for the department.
Pharmacy manager Jan Goddard was pleased with the award that recognises a lot of hard work put in by the whole Pharmacy team and as a result will ultimately improve patient safety.
One of Health Waikato's six priorities to improve patient safety for 2009 is to reduce medication errors.
Chief operating officer Jan Adams said the Pharmacy had a clear role to play in this.
"They are now well advanced in taking this further and implementing a 'zero tolerance' campaign to ensure safe prescribing in Health Waikato," she said.
The other priorities are to reduce patient falls, ensure that clinical audits are carried out in every clinical unit, set up the Health Waikato mortality committee to reduce avoidable mortality, improve hand hygiene practices and implement a safe patient care programme.
"Patient safety at Health Waikato is a continuous improvement," she said.
ENDS
* Fiona McNabb is speaking on behalf of the whole project team.
Waikato District Health Board
Healthy People. Excellent Care
Waikato District Health Board (DHB) employs over 6500 people and plans, funds and provides hospital and health services to more than 391,770 people in a region covering eight per cent of New Zealand.
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