The subspecialty I plan on focusing my career around is medication therapy management (MTM), whether I work in a retail setting or not. Pharmacy informatics will be important to me, as the programs I use to fill prescriptions will also monitor the possible interactions, duplicative therapies, contraindications, etc. of the medications my patients will be receiving. This system will be my resource to ascertain which patients are in need of MTM and why, and by combining the information contained in the pharmacy’s records of the patient with information I may get from the patient’s other health care providers and the patient themselves, I will be able to see what points I need to bring up during an MTM session.
More basic than MTM is counseling, and more basic than that is appropriate dispensing. The pharmacy patient information system tracks potential dangers to each patient in every prescription order, and if there is a safety issue or an error in the patient’s medication use, the system will inform either the pharmacy tech or myself, and I plan on paying attention to those warnings and assuring that everything is appropriate for every medication order before dispensing it to the patient. By doing this, I hope to avoid any serious medication errors and protect my patients and assure that they receive the best medication therapy possible. If I don’t properly use my pharmacy informatics resources, I am responsible for any patient harm that is caused by my negligence.
The biggest failure I can think of when it comes to these systems is that they bring up warning after warning that may or may not be important, so pharmacists or techs stop paying attention to them and dismiss them without knowing what they are. This practice can be ...
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... What is the role of standard/structured medical vocabularies and other standards in CDS? Alternatively, why are standard/structured medical vocabularies necessary for CDS?
They allow for more effective communication between providers, patients, and electronic systems. For example, a patient may say they have a broken leg, while a provider may call it a compound tibial shaft fracture, and the computer system will call it 1000110101101. (That bit of binary is completely made up.) The computer would then express its assessment of the situation, which the provider would understand as antibiotics and a rod in their leg. The patient may understand that they have to have surgery and medications, depending on their level of familiarity with medicine. The point is that without a way to translate medical information between different languages, we couldn’t treat anything.
In conclusion, clinical decision support systems provide a mechanism for improving the quality of care services when integrated with evidence-based practice and clinical guidelines. These systems would particularly improve health care quality when combined with evidence-based medicine. This process may also include the use of databases and condition-specific clinical guidelines to improve their effectiveness and efficiency.
Advantages: Fast and simple – Easy to understand – With different EHR programs (EPIC or Powerhcart) all the standardized terminology are the same – Not only nursing understand the terms but other healthcare providers will also – There should be no assumption what the terms mean because it’s a universal terms in all EHR.
T-Writer, EW, met with client SM to work on his recovery goal of medication management.
Some method such as audits, chart reviews, computer monitoring, incident report, bar codes and direct patient observation can improve and decrease medication errors. Regular audits can help patient’s care and reeducate nurses in the work field to new practices. Also reporting of medication errors can help with data comparison and is a learning experience for everyone. Other avenues that has been implemented are computerized physician order entry systems or electronic prescribing (a process of electronic entry of a doctor’s instructions for the treatment of patients under his/her care which communicates these orders over a computer network to other staff or departments) responsible for fulfilling the order, and ward pharmacists can be more diligence on the prescription stage of the medication pathway. A random survey was done in hospital pharmacies on medication error documentation and actions taken against pharmacists involved. A total of 500 hospital were selected in the United States. Data collected on the number of medication error reported, what types of errors were documented and the hospital demographics. The response rate was a total of 28%. Practically, all of the hospitals had policies and procedures in place for reporting medication errors.
Computerized Physician Order Entry (CPOE) allows physicians to electronically enter their patients’ medical orders into the EHR. These orders can then be viewed by other departments and healthcare professionals on a secured network. This system also contains safety alerts and offers permanent record keeping. CPOE was put into place to reduce the risk of medication errors and improve the safety of patient care practices. In order to reduce medication errors and improve patient safety the system was designed to have alert and signaling features to let the nurse know there is a medication safety issue. These safety issues result when there is an error in the six rights of medication administration. The six rights are; right patient, right drug, right dose, right route, right order, and right time. For example, the wrong dose of medication would alert the nurse that the dose does not match the physicians’ orders, preventing potential harm to the patient. Another example would be administering a medication outside the specified time frame. This would alert the nurse to hold the medication and investigate further. If the nurse decides to continue giving the medication they must specify their reasoning for giving i...
Safe and competent medication practice requires using the seven rights of medication administration. The rights are: Right Medication - This means that the medication that is given is the right medication. Right Patient -Giving the medication to the patient for whom it was intended. Right Dosage-This means that the patient is given the dose that was ordered and the dose is appropriate for the patient. Right Route – meaning the medication is given only the route that was ordered and that the routes safe and appropriate for the patient. Right Time -This means that the drug was given at the correct time as ordered or according to agency policy. Right Reason- This is important to make sure the right medication was ordered. Right Documentation-Nurses
"The definition of Medication Assisted Treatment (MAT) is the use of medications in combination with counseling and behavioral therapies for the treatment of Substance Use Disorders."(SAMHSA) (Abuse, n.d.). Medication are used to suppress withdrawal symptoms and relieve cravings. Medication can also be used to prevent relapse and treat co-occurring conditions such as anxiety and depression. It's important to understand that addiction is a disease of the brain and it comes in many forms such as gambling, overeating, and exercising just to name a few.
Precision of a patient’s intravenous medication is essential; it must be safe from. contamination, toxicity, and side effects. Most people believe these medications are compounded or mixed by a trained and licensed individual. However, this is inaccurate because the pharmacy technician actually compounds a large percentage of a patient’s medications. Compounding involves a technician’s math skills, aseptic technique, and professional ethics.... ...
Some Pharmacy Admission Specialist (PAS) have difficulty thinking through what must be done when problems are presented in different contexts. Not only must the PAS interview the patient, verify the information and update the EHR, but the PAS must also determine where to find the information, how much time to devote to finding any single piece of verification, how to input the medication so that it is accurate and clear to the provider and pharmacist, and when to mark the list as "ready for provider" or leave it to be finished the next day with clear indication of what has already been completed. The standard work and practice is continually evolving to meet the demands of patient safety. This complex problem requires critical thinking skills with the ability to use the knowledge acquired in each scenario.
Despite the efforts to provide the best care, there are still different factors that may contribute to medication errors and they are the major cause of morbidity and mortality in the hospital setting. For instance, health care professionals, particularly nurses, use a broad variety of devices to help administer medications: infusion pumps, IV administration sets, oral syringes, etc. Infusion pumps are a common type of error identified in the hospitals and can cause serious harm, including death. Most of the errors are associated with
Multiple steps are conducted to ensure that medications received and administered to nursing facility residents are the intended ones. Nursing facility regulations specify that the facility “must develop and implement appropriate policies and procedures for accurate acquiring, receiving, and administering of all medications” (CMS, 2014). Before medications are packed for delivery, a LTCP employee checks that individual content of a package match the prescription label on the package (CMS, 2014). It is crucial for the nursing staff to be conscientious on the order submission cut-off time so the medications can be delivered as soon as possible.
Electronically entering medical information helps ease the space taken up by paper records, especially from patients that have large files. Another advantage is being able to access records from another doctor without having to fax information or the previous method of carting around paper copies of your chart. Sending a prescription electronically also has a major benefit, as a patient no longer would need to drop a paper script off to the pharmacy and wait. The script would be sent directly to the pharmacy and from there the pharmacist would go over the prescribed drug and error check then process the prescription. It allows the patient to drive directly to the pharmacy after a doctor visit and their medication would be ready and waiting. Most of all the software for the electronic records provide a doctor to accurately enter a diagnosis and sub diagnosis without having to look it up codes in a medical book. It also allows a doctor to enter notes much easier because it takes the guess work out of questionable handwriting. I agree that medical records will be very beneficial once I feel they are safe. I still feel there needs to be a lot worked out with the safety of my health information and making sure I won’t ever feel like I can’t trust my own doctor. I enjoy the ease of having all my information in one spot and knowing if I were to
I was also responsible for monitoring medication orders and reviewing patient profiles to ensure that the proper drugs and dosages were prescribed and that the pharmacy technician had prepared them properly. In many instances there were mistakes made in the preparation phase and sometimes even before, with incorrect dosages or drugs being prescribed and prepared, which could result in serious adverse effects for the patient. A clinical pharmacist’s role, however, is to make sure that these mistakes never reach the
Will, L. ed., 2010. Technology and the Future of Pharmacy: A Roundtable Discussion. Computer Talk for the Pharmacist, [online] 30(3), 20-36. Available at: [Accessed on 11 November 2011]
Like every career, pharmacists have certain qualities and skills. I feel that I fit many qualities of pharmacists, including an attention to detail, communication skills, and science and mathematic skills. I have also been a perfectionist, paying attention to each detail of my work. This is what helped me stay organized throughout high school, and earn a 4.021 cumulative GPA. Pharmacists must be detail-orientated to ensure their patients receive the right dosage, amount, and type of medication. An error in this could harm the patient, therefore breaking the Hippocratic oath. Furthermore, a pharmacist must pay attention to the patient’s other prescriptions and medical history to avoid any negative reactions. Next, I have earned strong customer service and communication skills from my job at Fareway Food Stores. Since I earned this job in May 2012, I have made it one of my goals to assist and brighten the day of my customers. As a pharmacist, I would need strong communication skills with my patients to fit them with the best prescription possible. Additionally, I would counsel them on the directions of their mediation, any potential side affects, and how to add new medications into their lifestyle with the least amount of stress. Apart from my patients, I would have to communicate my with pharmacy technicians and any interns I may have, as well as insurance companies. Lastly, I feel I have natural abilities in science and mathematics. I