Medication Errors

[Sue McGann]

We have had a recent trend in medication errors. The hospital that I work in continues to use a physician order sheet with a carbon sheet that is torn off and sent to the pharmacy. We are finding that many of these errors are due to these carbon sheets. One error was noted when the different set pre-printed orders on the carbon was attached to the front order sheet. This was an error in the printing process. My question is: Does your hospital still use paper order sheet with a carbon sheet that is sent to the pharmacy? Or are you all computerized? Are you using CPOE(computerized physician order entry) Thanks Sue

[cannoli]

On the subject of emar, I haven't used it yet myself, but they have started it at the hospital I work at. On the floors that use it, the nurses say it is very time consuming and they are getting out 2 hours later because of it.