Novel hosp meds idea
May 10, 2016
PALMERSTON North Hospital in
New Zealand has adopted a raft of
new measures designed to manage
medicine safety, according to a
report in Fairfax Media.
With 321 medication errors
compared to 311 in the previous
period, the MidCentral District
Health Board’s Medication Safety
Committee is addressing the issues
through several initiatives.
All incidents involved medicines
and IV fluids, particularly errors
associated with patient, dosage,
timing and prescriptions, and new
procedures at Palmerston North
Hospital have been adopted also by
other NZ District Health Boards.
A “traffic light” colour coding
system has been created to ensure
easy accurate identification of
dosing, with blue and green the
lowest doses and red the highest.
This has also reduced wastage
of medications, chief pharmacist
Lorraine Welman said, which is
significant with about two million
medicines administered annually.
Welman said they had also
introduced “Tall Man lettering”,
changing case to help differentiate
between drugs with similar names.
Other steps taken include
a MedDispense cabinet in
the emergency department,
clarification on insulin and heparin
charts, simplified reporting systems
following adverse reactions,
encouraging well-organised drug
cupboards and education sessions.
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