Purpose: The fast-paced environment of the emergency department (ED), with frequent admissions, discharges, and transfers, poses a challenge for pharmacy departments to effectively distribute and store medications. The purpose of this study is to propose a unique workflow of patient-specific medication delivery to the ED from a hospital pharmacy to reduce the number of missing medications resulting in medication messages and redispenses.
Methods: The medication delivery workflow proposed in this study consists of batching the preparation and distribution of patient-specific medications sent from the pharmacy to the ED in the 1 to 2 hours prior to their administration time. Chi-square analysis was completed to compare medication redispenses and "missing medication" messages before and after the intervention, with the significance level set at P < 0.05.
Results: The percentage of redispensed medications was effectively decreased following implementation of the workflow change from 21.6% to 9.2% (P < 0.001), with unit doses having the greatest reduction (25.8% vs 6.1%, P < 0.001). Benefits of this workflow change were also illustrated through a reduction in the percentage of missing-medication messages sent by nursing staff from 97.7% to 93.9% (P < 0.001).
Conclusion: This study showed that implementation of standard, hourly batches of medications dispensed from the pharmacy to the ED resulted in a significant reduction in the total percentage of redispensed medications and missing-medication messages. The overall reduction in redispensed medications as a result of this innovative workflow change not only benefited nursing and pharmacy staff but can reduce medication waste and improve patient care through timely administration of medications.
Download full-text PDF |
Source |
|---|---|
| http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/ajhp/zxae084 | DOI Listing |
Publication Analysis
Top Keywords
Similar Publications
[Redispensing of expensive oral anticancer medicines: a practical application].
Ned Tijdschr Geneeskd
November 2024
Nederlands Kanker Instituut - Antoni van Leeuwenhoek, afd. Farmacie en Farmacologie, Amsterdam.
Article Synopsis
- The rising use of pricey oral anticancer medications (OAM) creates financial and environmental issues, especially due to wasted, unused drugs.
- Current efforts to minimize medication waste encounter challenges, including legal obstacles like the EU Falsified Medicines Directive.
- A proposed method for redispensing OAM shows promise, achieving 79% eligibility for returned drugs, saving over €483,000, and reducing hazardous waste, while encouraging changes to remove legal barriers for a broader implementation.
Environmental Outcomes of Reducing Medication Waste by Redispensing Unused Oral Anticancer Drugs.
JAMA Netw Open
October 2024
Department of Pharmacy, Radboud University Medical Center, Nijmegen, the Netherlands.
Importance: Medications are associated with substantial environmental outcomes, yet frequently end up being unused by patients. Waste-minimizing interventions, such as redispensing of quality-approved oral anticancer drugs remaining unused by patients at home, could reduce the environmental footprint of cancer treatment.
Objectives: To assess the environmental outcomes of redispensing quality-assured oral anticancer drugs and to explore how redispensing could be environmentally optimized.
Re-Exposure to Culprit Medication Following Adverse Drug Event Diagnosis in Canadian Emergency Department Patients: A Cohort Study.
Pharmacoepidemiol Drug Saf
September 2024
Department of Emergency Medicine, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.
Purpose: The magnitude of repeat exposures to culprit medications after hospital discharge is not well studied. We combined prospective cohort data with administrative health data to understand the frequency of repeat exposures to culprit medications after discharge and the risk factors for their occurrence.
Methods: This was a retrospective analysis of three prospective cohorts of patients who presented to the hospital with an adverse drug event in British Columbia, from 2008 to 2015 (n = 849).
Barriers and facilitators to implement the redispensing of unused oral anticancer drugs in clinical care: A hybrid-effectiveness type I study.
Explor Res Clin Soc Pharm
September 2024
Radboud University Medical Center, Department of Pharmacy, Nijmegen, the Netherlands.
Background: Minimizing medication waste through the redispensing of oral anticancer drugs (OADs) that were unused by patients provides economic and environmental benefits, but this is not yet universally implemented in clinical care.
Objectives: To identify barriers and facilitators to the implementation of redispensing unused OADs in clinical care.
Methods: A multicentre intervention study following a hybrid effectiveness-implementation type I design was conducted, consisting of semi-structured interviews with key stakeholders involved in the redispensing program: pharmacy employees, prescribing clinicians in oncology and haematology, patients who participated in redispensing and patients who declined trial participation.
Purpose: The fast-paced environment of the emergency department (ED), with frequent admissions, discharges, and transfers, poses a challenge for pharmacy departments to effectively distribute and store medications. The purpose of this study is to propose a unique workflow of patient-specific medication delivery to the ED from a hospital pharmacy to reduce the number of missing medications resulting in medication messages and redispenses.
Methods: The medication delivery workflow proposed in this study consists of batching the preparation and distribution of patient-specific medications sent from the pharmacy to the ED in the 1 to 2 hours prior to their administration time.
Want AI Summaries of new PubMed Abstracts delivered to your In-box?
Enter search terms and have AI summaries delivered each week - change queries or unsubscribe any time!