How can information technology professionals take a more proactive role in medication error reduction efforts?

Medication management involves the integration of data into a complex operational workflow that stretches from inventory to medication administration. So, there’s plenty of opportunity for IT professionals to contribute to their organizations’ medication management efforts. Unfortunately, IT often gets pulled in toward the very end of the medication-management-solution buying process or even after decisions have been made.

IT professionals should take it upon themselves to research and learn more about medication management and insert themselves into the buying process earlier. Now that medication management solutions are becoming integrated with EHRs and other technologies, IT professionals can help their organizations take a more holistic approach by lending their expertise on issues such as overall strategic technology planning, database management and data security. These issues are all going to be very important as the market moves forward.

More than 70 percent of the clinicians who participated in the HIMSS Analytics study acknowledged the value of a single vendor for medication management. What are the benefits of this approach?

Having just one medication formulary that moves from inventory to administration reduces mismatches and is much less complex to manage. Also, a common infrastructure where medication management applications and devices can leverage a single platform could dramatically reduce cost of ownership. And, leveraging advanced analytics with everything from medication inventory all the way to benchmarking clinical performance is only achievable when data and technology are aligned.

More streamlined staff education and service is another positive benefit of a single medication management partner. Just as organizations benefit from having less complexity when using a single EHR, I anticipate the single vendor trend in the medication management space will follow the same storyline.

While there are many benefits associated with using a single vendor for medication management, the survey showed that 22 percent of organizations are still using multiple vendors. Why is this happening?

A lot of it is just tradition. Historically, there has been the view that there is no one common solution for a medication management system. It didn’t exist in the marketplace really. The only choice was to do the best job you could with various solutions.

Unfortunately, with these disparate systems where each department is doing its own thing, it is very difficult to coordinate. We witness this every day. And the other problem, of course, is how do you sustain commonality between these systems, especially with connections into the EHR? It becomes very difficult to do.

Why is integration across the medication management process so important – and what safety risks are patients exposed to when this integration is lacking?    

Seamless data coordination and integration between medication management systems, as well as the EHR, is necessary to reduce medication errors and improve efficiency simply because it is difficult to make informed decisions on inaccurate or missing data. However, when an organization is attempting to integrate dozens of independent products all with their own data structure, security and interfacing, it becomes almost impossible to achieve these integrated capabilities.

That is why it is important to rethink how medication management actually works. Only by reducing the infrastructure complexities and data coordination, and relying on more holistic systems, can we even start to achieve the positive results that are needed to truly enhance patient safety.

Just about every piece of the operational medication-management workflow process – from inventory to ordering through the CPOE to dispensing to administering medications at the patient bedside – touches the medication formulary. In an integrated system, a common data architecture would provide a seamless workflow from one end to the other, making it possible for all those connections to smoothly talk with each other. That is one piece of the puzzle.

The other piece is communication. One of the problems with individual departmental systems is that there is very little communication between where the medications are processed and where they are actually being administered at the point of care. The technologies that are used today – the phone or email – are very inefficient and ineffective.

A single integrated system that offers a smart way of tracking medications as well as who touched the medications will be a big needle mover when it comes to patient safety. What’s needed is an integrated technology to connect the systems so the nurse can know exactly where medications are, if they are on the way, if they have been ordered, or if they have been changed by the doctor and so forth. All of that information is readily available in a single integrated system. Unfortunately, with these disconnected systems passing the baton from one to the other, accessing all that crucial information becomes a very difficult task.

“Seamless data coordination and integration between medication management  systems, as well as the EHR, is necessary to reduce medication errors and improve efficiency.”

- DAN PETTUS, BD

About BD

BD is a global medical technology company that is advancing the world of health by improving medical discovery, diagnostics and the delivery of care. BD leads in patient and healthcare worker safety and the technologies that enable medical research and clinical laboratories. The company provides innovative solutions that help advance medical research and genomics, enhance the diagnosis of infectious disease and cancer, improve medication management, promote infection prevention, equip surgical and interventional procedures and support the management of diabetes.

Disclosure: The survey conducted by HIMSS Analytics, 2017 Medication Management and Safety Study, was sponsored by BD.