Improving Patient Care: Medication Errors and Communication Strategies

This report explores the critical issue of medication prescription errors within the healthcare system and their impact on patient care. It emphasizes the significance of effective communication strategies, including the use of IT solutions and drug formularies, to mitigate these errors. The report highlights the role of management in facilitating better communication across disciplines, thereby improving medication management processes. It also discusses the causes of medication errors, such as irrational prescribing, and the benefits of implementing IT policies like computerized physician order entry. The report underscores the need for clear communication channels, accurate patient information transfer, and the importance of patient understanding of their medications. Ultimately, the report aims to provide insights into improving patient safety and outcomes through enhanced communication and proactive measures within healthcare settings.

Improving communications
in hospital managers

Patient care
 Improvement of patient care is a priority for the healthcare institutions and it is
done with a prime objective of achieving a patient satisfaction.
 Patient care quality is determined by infrastructure quality, training quality,
personnel competency and operational systems efficiency.

Patient centred care
 Patient-centred care focuses on an individual’s health specific needs with
regards to medical, social, cultural and community needs.
 Positive health outcomes drive the collaborative team decisions and quality
treatments.
 Patients are partnered with nurses, doctors for joint decision making.

Medication prescription errors
 Prescribing faults along with prescription errors occur in hospital and general
practice. They can be rarely fatal but it can affect patients' safety adversely.
 Prescription errors involves irrational and inappropriate prescribing, over-
prescribing, under-prescribing and even ineffective prescribing due to
incompetent medical judgement or wrong diagnosis.

Lack of communication
 Prescription errors are considered as preventable errors which unnecessarily
harm the patients, hospitalization experience, patient prognosis and
satisfaction.
 Improving communication (as seen in many studies) between the providers
and the patients - is cardinal to the lessening of medication prescription errors
and improvement of patient recovery.

Role of management
 Medication management plays a huge role in extensive collaboration and it is
reported to be lacking along with lack of communication across disciplines
and - can reduce the incidences of medication-related errors.
 Medication management flows through recurrent 5 activities (that is determine
need, dispense, prescribe, administer, and evaluate) with information
communicated between the frameworks.

Causes of medication prescription errors
A medication error can be caused by irrational, ineffective,
inappropriate, under or overprescribing, prescription errors and
erroneous judgements.

Implementation of IT policy
 Medication errors, a healthcare priority has found its evidence based
preventive systems in the field of information technology.
 IT policies set up certain plan of action like– computed physician order entry,
bar-coded medication, administration cabinets .

Communication change
 Quick Information transfer – faxing the medication histories of patients
when they are admitted in a hospital having so as to have a proper
reconciliation, fast transfer and handover of accurate patient
information.
 The setting up of drug formularies and their protocols of shared-care is a
important communication facilitation tool.

Communication change
Prescription should be produced, then signed and then , returned to patient
 Qualified prescriber assesses that prescription is safe
 Medication repeat requests should be dealt in a accurately, timely and secured
manner.
 Patients should know what and how a particular medication was prescribed to
him.