Technology and medication errors: impact in nursing homes.

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to study a medication distribution technology's (MDT) impact on medication errors reported in public nursing homes in Québec Province.

Design/methodology/approach: The work was carried out in six nursing homes (800 patients). Medication error data were collected from nursing staff through a voluntary reporting process before and after MDT was implemented.

Impact of technological innovation on a nursing home performance and on the medication-use process safety.

Despite the fact that since 1985 the government of Québec increased by 5.75 % on average the amount of money spent on healthcare per year, little improvement was noted. It is obvious that an optimal use of resources is essential to reduce waiting times and provide safer and faster services to patients.