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less interruptions help nurses reduce drug errors



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Oct 28, 2009 01:58 PM

less interruptions help nurses reduce drug errors

by brian Staff

Prescription for success: Don't bother nurses

For nurses, constant interruptions while tending to a patient are part of the job. But a distraction that happens while they're giving medications could have deadly results.

A UCSF program to improve accuracy in administering drugs - with particular emphasis on reducing interruptions that often lead to mistakes - resulted in a nearly 88 percent drop in errors over 36 months at the nine Bay Area hospitals, according to results being released today.

"Medication errors make up the largest slice of the medical error pie," said Julie Kliger, director of UCSF's Integrated Nurse Leadership Program, which developed the medication errors program. "Improving these numbers is a huge benefit to patient safety and, secondarily, it reduces costs."

Errors in administering medication cause about 400,000 preventable injuries in hospitals and about $3.5 billion in extra medical costs a year, according to the Institute of Medicine.
Reducing errors

A 36-month program involving nine Bay Area hospitals found:

-- Accuracy in administering medications improved from an average of 83.8 percent at the start of the program in 2006 to 93 percent after 18 months and 98 percent after 36 months.

-- Between September 2006 and September 2009, medication errors at the hospitals dropped by an average of 87.7 percent.

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40 Comments
No. 1
from SuesquatchRN
Old Oct 28, 2009, 02:00 PM

Default Re: less interruptions help nurses reduce drug errors
Heh. That's like the study done after the ExxonValdez oil spill. Guess what researchers discovered! Wait for it, because you're not gonna believe it - sailors drink!
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No. 2
from vivacious1healer
Old Oct 28, 2009, 02:23 PM

Default Re: less interruptions help nurses reduce drug errors
Oh-my-lanta! Our tax dollars at work for another 'state the obvious' research.....
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No. 3
from highlandlass1592
Old Oct 28, 2009, 02:56 PM

Default Re: less interruptions help nurses reduce drug errors
Well gosh, you know it can't be true till someone does a study about it.....
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No. 4
from Cherybaby
Old Oct 28, 2009, 03:11 PM

Default Re: less interruptions help nurses reduce drug errors
Amazing.

Thank you, Masters of the Obvious.
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No. 5
from nyteshade
Old Oct 28, 2009, 03:20 PM

Default Re: less interruptions help nurses reduce drug errors
Well duh!!! LMAO!
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No. 6
from P_RN
Old Oct 28, 2009, 03:45 PM

Default Re: less interruptions help nurses reduce drug errors
I loved the pilot reference to the sterile cockpit. Didn't someone over shoot the landing by 150 miles just this week? I found it wasn't Nurses interrupting so much as it was the unit secretary refusing to call someone else when I was at the Pyxis or out giving meds.
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No. 7
from Cindy-san
Old Oct 28, 2009, 04:14 PM

Default Re: less interruptions help nurses reduce drug errors
No interruptions, eh? No problem!

Just have to get rid of the: phone calls, doctors, family members, managers, inservices, call bells, all other signs of life on the unit and ta-dah!
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No. 8
from Mollypita
Old Oct 28, 2009, 04:24 PM

Default Re: less interruptions help nurses reduce drug errors
Go figure!
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No. 9
from StNeotser
Old Oct 28, 2009, 04:24 PM

Default Re: less interruptions help nurses reduce drug errors
Wait till you tell someone not to interrupt you because you're passing meds. Some suit will be bleating "customer service" at you.

Yes, this is the winner of The Basil Fawlty Statin' the Bleedin' Obvious Award.
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