Evaluation of Medication Administration Timing-Are We Meeting Our Goals?

Background: Per the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) 482.23(c) regarding medication administration, hospital policies and procedures must identify time-critical scheduled medications which must be administered within 30 minutes either before or after the scheduled dosing time, for a total administration window of 1 hour.

Objective: The general objective of this analysis was to determine whether there was a difference in meeting medication administration goals when comparing time-critical to non-time-critical scheduled medication administration in both intensive care units (ICUs) and general medical floors at a large, academic medical center.