Medication management is one of the central processes taking place in the clinical setting, and it is often associated with medical errors that affect patient health outcomes. The utilization of Electron Health Records (EHR) has proved to be effective in addressing medication-related errors (Hron et al., 2015). However, the problem still persists although it has acquired new forms. The process has become more efficient as compared to medication management in the past decades, but issues associated with the use of technology have become quite common. For instance, healthcare practitioners duplicate data or miss some points to be covered (Carayon et al., 2017). This paper focuses on medication-related problems and ways to prevent its occurrence.
The existing literature on the matter indicates that the problem has become acknowledged, and some ways to address it have been developed. Carayon et al. (2017) found that order duplication and missing data are the most recurrent errors that could potentially lead to serious adverse effects on patients’ health. Hron et al. (2015) examined the effectiveness of the EHR that implied the use of pre- and post-admission prescriptions. The number of medication-related errors decreased, and healthcare professionals revealed their positive attitudes towards the innovation.
The process of medication management involves the following stages: medication history, prescription, and administration. Physicians (and other doctors), nurses, and pharmacists are mainly involved in this process. Commercial electronic health records are mainly used for effective medication management. The system includes management of such data as laboratory tests results, allergies, medications used, medications prescribed, and treatment plans. EHRs are also characterized by the use of alerts, standards, guidelines, and sources that can help in medication management.
The described process is associated with certain common errors that can take place at all the three stages. For example, the description of pre-admission medications can be incomplete as nurses can miss some data (Carayon et al., 2017). The prescription stage is mainly linked to duplication, which can result in additional costs for patients and healthcare providers. Furthermore, some details concerning prescription can be missing due to physicians’ fatigue, workload, or the lack of training. Finally, medication administration can also be related to common errors. Nurses can forget to provide the data concerning medication administration, which can result in serious negative patient health outcomes.
In order to eliminate the problem, it is necessary to undertake some steps aimed at improving the effectiveness of EHRs use. First, it is possible to recommend healthcare facilities to choose the software that has proved to be effective in other hospitals. The chosen EHR should have mandatory fields that cannot be omitted. These must include allergies, antibiotics (or certain drugs) used previously, and the like. Duplication can be minimized if alerts are introduced. At that, it is necessary to make sure that the users will be able to include the data that are repetitive, as this is a part of the process. Apart from that, it is important to introduce alerts and mandatory fields for nursing professions. Nurses should give all the necessary details. Clearly, it is essential to make sure that regular training is provided to the medical staff, and the software is updated in a timely manner. It is also possible to develop visuals that can help healthcare professionals avoid any medication-related errors. The visuals can be incorporated into EHRs and can be placed in the clinical settings.
References
Carayon, P., Du, S., Brown, R., Cartmill, R., Johnson, M., & Wetterneck, T. B. (2017). EHR-related medication errors in two ICUs. Journal of Healthcare Risk Management, 36(3), 6-15.
Hron, J. D., Manzi, S., Dionne, R., Chiang, V. W., Brostoff, M., Altavilla, S., … Harper, M. B. (2015). Electronic medication reconciliation and medication errors. International Journal for Quality in Health Care, 27(4), 314-319.