DIMENSION MEDICATION MANAGEMENT
Rationale for measurement
Medicines are the most common treatment used in health care and contribute to significant improvement in health when used appropriately. However, medicines can also be associated with harm and the common use of medicine means they are associated with more errors and adverse events than any other aspect of health care. While rates of serious harm are low, errors can affect health outcome. The prevalence of medication errors is of particular concern because the majority of these errors are generally preventable.
Measurement methodology
In the absence of an internationally accepted robust method for measuring medication incidents, incidents are calculated per 100 Bed Days Used (BDU).
- Data source: Hospital reporting to National Incident Management System (NIMS).
- Incidents are calculated per 100 Bed Days Used (BDU) https://report.nrls.nhs.uk/nrlsreporting/
- Medication errors are classified utilising the NCC/MERP Index http://www.nccmerp.org/types-medication-errors
Target
- there is no internationally accepted methodology for measuring medication errors or performance target and the RCSI HG does not have access to national performance data. However, internationally, incidents are estimated to occur at a rate of 1 error per hospitalised patient per day in the USA (Institute of Medicine USA Prevention of Medication Errors – 2006).
Performance
RCSI Hospital Group
- whilst values demonstrated are significantly lower than US study, there is evidence that current reporting control constructs are less than optimal with resultant under-reporting at this time