Medicine Management

[ali]

Hi 99ers ,

Given the well recognised potential for drug error on the NICU I would be grateful for some insight into how 

other Units have approached the processes of education, surveillance and management of medicine errors on their NICU.                                                                                                                                                         

If you prefer please feel free to email me ( alih.1@icloud.com )

Kind regards

Ali

[Stefan Johansson]

The strategy in the hospitals in Stockholm is to have pre-defined prescriptions in the electronic records, so the IT-system gives some guidance in prescription. There is for example "dosing control" so we get a red flag if a dose seems out of range for a specific weight. There are written instructions for all drugs on typical dosing, infusion/injection times etc.

We also have written "dilution instructions" for all drugs that needs any handling that goes beyond taking something out-of-the-box. We are encouraging all staff to use the written instructions even if they are experienced.

Despite all systematic work, medication errors still occur sometimes... although rarely... then we make a "process analysis", with the aim to identify systematic errors that we can target.

Most important (in my experience), is to have an "allowing" athmosphere, so staff always feel ok to ask any question about drugs, infusion setups etc-etc. No matter how experienced we are, we all need advice and 2nd opinions sometimes.