Maximizing student potential: Lessons for pharmacy programs from the patient safety movement.

Higher education institutions (HEIs), including pharmacy programs, are experiencing growing pressure from the public and policy makers to develop student-centered learning experiences that meet societal needs. While HEIs may have in-house initiatives to meet such challenges, there are also opportunities for cross-domain learning and application of useful concepts from other sectors. One such sector that lends itself to cross-domain learning is the healthcare industry.

Investigating multiple sources of data for smart infusion pump and electronic health record interoperability.

Purpose: Infusion pump data, which describe compliance to dose-error reduction software among other metrics, are retrievable from infusion pump vendor software, electronic health record (EHR) systems, and regional and national data repositories such as the Regenstrief National Center for Medical Device Informatics (REMEDI). Smart infusion pump and EHR interoperability has added to the granularity and complexity of data collected, and clinicians are challenged with efficiently comprehending and interpreting the data and reports available.

Summary: Collaborative partnerships between the Indianapolis Coalition for Patient Safety and the Regenstrief Center for Healthcare Engineering allowed for clinicians, informaticists, researchers, and engineers to compare the information gained and strengths of using smart infusion pumps, EHR, and REMEDI to assess hospital medication safety in a setting of interoperability.

Healthcare Professionals Risk Assessments for Alert Overrides in High-Risk IV Infusions Using Simulated Scenarios.

This study aimed to use healthcare professionals' assessments to calculate expected risk of intravenous (IV) infusion harm for simulated high-risk medications that exceed soft limits and to investigate the impact of relevant risk factors. We designed 30 infusion scenarios for four high-risk medications, propofol, morphine, insulin, and heparin, infused in adult intensive care unit (AICU) and adult medical and surgical care unit (AMSU). A total of 20 pharmacists and 5 nurses provided their assessed expected risk of harm in each scenario.

Third Consensus Development Conference on the Safety of Intravenous Drug Delivery Systems-2018.

Purpose: The Third Consensus Conference on the Safety of Intravenous Drug Delivery Systems was convened to evaluate the benefits and risks of available systems and assess ongoing threats to the safety of intravenous drug delivery.

Summary: The Third Consensus Conference on the Safety of Intravenous Drug Delivery Systems convened in Chicago, Illinois in November 2018. An expert panel of healthcare providers with experience in medication quality and safety, pharmacy and nursing operations, information technology, and/or sterile compounding led the conference.

High-alert medication administration and intravenous smart pumps: A descriptive analysis of clinical practice.

Background: The Institute for Safe Medication Practices (ISMP) describes high alert medications (HAM) as medications that represent a heightened risk of patient harm when used in error. IV smart pumps with dose error reduction systems (DERS) were created to help address medication administration errors. Compliance with DERS provides a measure of how accurately a hospital uses smart pump technology to reduce IV medication error.

Standardizing concentrations of adult drug infusions in Indiana.

Purpose: A multidisciplinary, consensus-driven initiative to promote the use of standardized medication concentrations for adult drug infusions across the state of Indiana is described.

Methods: To accomplish development of the Indiana Standard Concentrations of Adult Drug Infusions List ("the Indiana List"), several available lists of i.v.

Comparative Safety, Efficiency, and Nursing Preference Among 3 Methods for Intravenous Push Medication Preparation: A Randomized Crossover Simulation Study.

Objective: The aim of this study was to compare total time for drug preparation, associated errors, and nurses' preferences among 3 different intravenous (IV) push medication methods.

Research Design: A randomized crossover simulation design was used to compare total time for drug preparation and incidence of medication preparation errors between BD Simplist (BDS), Carpuject (CJ), and traditional vial-and-syringe process (TVSP). Three medication preparation areas were created to mimic a hospital setting.

Reaching out to clinicians: implementation of a computerized alert system.

Several published articles have identified that providing automated, computer-generated clinical alerts about potentially critical clinical situations should result in better quality of care. In 1999, the pharmacy department at a community hospital network implemented and refined a commercially available, computerized clinical alert system. This case report discusses the implementation process, gives examples of how the system is used, and describes results following implementation.