Browsing by Subject "medication safety"

Background and objectives: Documenting and processing of dispensing errors at both organizational and national levels is one of the basic preconditions for effective medication risk management. Since the most recently accomplished national register research of dispensing errors in Finland, there have been several changes in the medication dispensing process that advance medication safety. Thus, the previous study does not provide an up-to-date picture of the current situation. The primary objective of this study was to find out the trends in dispensing errors that were reported to the Finnish Pharmacy Association's registry of dispensing errors in 2015–2019. The secondary objective was to identify risk factors expository to dispensing errors in the dispensing process and to review the measures utilized by community pharmacies to prevent dispensing errors. Materials and methods: The retrospective registry study, in which the register of dispensing errors maintained by the Finnish Association of Pharmacists for the period from 1 January 2015 to 31 December 2019, was analyzed. Cases that did not fulfil the definition of a dispensing error (n=829) were removed from the original data (n=17763). In addition, clear errors (n=2130) were corrected in the data and cases (n=499) that were initially insufficiently entered in the register were added. 17433 dispensing errors were included in the study. The data was analyzed using Microsoft Excel. The number, qualities, prescription types, observers, therapeutic harms and contributory factors of the dispensing errors were investigated in the data. The most common groups of medicinal substance, high-alert medications and risk factors in the medication dispensing process were identified in the data. In addition, interventions reported by community pharmacies to prevent dispensing errors were collected from the data. Results: The number of cases reported to the dispensing error register has decreased annually (2015 n=3913, 2016 n=3795, 2017 n=3708, 2018 n=3578, 2019 n=2439). The most common types of dispensing errors are incorrect strength (51 % of all the reported dispensing errors) and incorrect quantity or package size (14 %). Slightly more than a half (51 %) of the reported dispensing errors were noticed by medicine users. The percentage of electronic prescriptions in dispensing errors has increased and is clearly the most common prescription type in dispensing errors (2015: 79 %, 2016: 84 %, 2017: 93 %, 2018: 96 %, 2019: 95 %). The majority of dispensing errors occurred with cardiovascular medicines (29 %) and medicines affecting the nervous system (26 %). 7 % of dispensing errors caused therapeutic harm to the medicine user. As a result of dispensing errors, 21 medicine users were hospitalized. 13 % of dispensing errors occurred with high-alert medications (n=2244). The high-alert medications were involved in one-third (n=7) of dispensing errors that led to hospitalization. Factors related to the employee (25 %), similar packaging (19 %), and similar medicine name (15%) were most commonly considered to be the main contributory factors for the occurrence of the dispensing errors. The risk factors identified in the medicine dispensing process were related to the pharmacy system, the characteristics of the prescription, the storage method of the medicine and the characteristics of the medicine packaging. In the automated dose dispensing process, the risk of dispensing error increased if changes had to be made to the dose dispensing order. The risk factors for automated dose dispensing were related to the pharmacy system and the characteristics of the prescription. The community pharmacies had mentioned taking measures to prevent dispensing errors in one-fifth (21 %) of the reported cases. In addition to developing their own operations, community pharmacies saw cooperation with other healthcare professionals as an important factor in preventing medication errors. In addition, community pharmacies reported exposing properties for dispensing errors of pharmaceutical products and systems to pharmaceutical companies and providers of pharmacy systems and automated dose dispensing. Conclusions: Trends, risk factors of the dispensing process and interventions to prevent dispensing errors can be identified in the dispensing errors reported to the Finnish Association of Pharmacists’ dispensing error registry. The dispensing error register provides valuable information on dispensing errors at the national level, but it is no longer able to fulfil completely the current medication safety needs. In the future, the role of the pharmacy as a promoter of medication safety should be perceived as more comprehensive. In the development of medication safety, special attention should be paid to the risk factors of the dispensing process, the high-alert medications and to new risks arising from the increase of electronic prescriptions and automated dose dispensing. In addition, cooperation between pharmacies and other healthcare professionals and the medication safety culture of pharmacies should be further strengthened.

Medication-related errors have been identified as the single most important risk factor for patient safety across the world. According to previous research, medication errors are common in nursing homes. However, the existing data on medication errors in Finnish nursing homes is scarce, although the challenges and defects in nursing home care services, including drug treatments, are well known. Furthermore, nursing home residents are typically characterized by old age, multimorbidity and polypharmacy. Therefore, they are particularly vulnerable to potential adverse events caused by medication errors. The aim of this study was to investigate the rates and causes of medication errors reported in nursing homes and evaluate their impact on medication safety. Additionally, the proportions of potentially inappropriate medication (PIMs) and high-risk medication involved in the medication errors were determined. The data of the study consisted of 251 medication errors reports that were submitted to the safety incident report system (HaiPro) in nursing homes located in Central Uusimaa healthcare and social welfare joint municipal authority (Keusote) in 2019. Quantitative analysis of the data provided an overview of the medication errors that had occurred in nursing homes and the medicines most commonly involved in them. Content analysis and simplified root cause analysis enabled to study more in-depth the contributing factors of medication errors and potential risks associated with the medication process in nursing homes, as well as the possibilities of preventing similar errors in the future. James Reason's human error theory and in particular its system perspective was applied as a theoretical framework in this study. Medication errors were reported regularly in nursing homes during the follow-up period of the study. The most frequent medication error type was administration error. The majority of these errors were medication omissions, followed by the wrong time of administration and administration to the wrong patient. The most common drug classes causing medication errors were antithrombotics, opioids, antidementia drugs, diuretics, antipsychotics, antidiabetics, and antidepressants. Nearly a quarter of the reported medicines were high-risk medications, most commonly opioids, antithrombotics, or antidiabetic drugs. PIMs accounted for approximately 13% of all medications in the data. Errors were most often caused by unsafe medication practices, communication problems, and deficiencies in the work environment such as excessive workload or time pressure. A significant part of the medication errors were related to transdermal medication patches. The study also showed that the quality of medication error reporting in nursing homes is in part insufficient and should be improved so that the reports can be better used for learning purposes. The results of the study provide valuable additional information on medication errors in Finnish nursing homes and their contributing factors. The information can be used to improve medication safety practices in nursing homes. Safe and uninterrupted medication use process is a goal that should be pursued not only in health care but also in social welfare services such as nursing homes.

Family caregiving refers to the organization of home care for an older adult, disabled or sick person with the assistance of a relative or other close person. The number of elderly carers (> 65 years) of all family garegivers is significant. There are challenges concerning family caregiving for the older adults, due to increased age is in connection with decreased physical performance and increased number of medications and polypharmacy. Despite these factors, there has been little research on the medication safety in the family caregiving among older adults. The aim of this Master's thesis was to identify factors influencing the ability of a caregiver to cope with the medication management of the older adults. These factors were divided into subgategories: factors associated a family caregiver, associated a care recipient and system-oriented factors. The research was conducted as a method triangulation, in which the data were collected through two interviews with home visits (n = 21) and related questionnaires. The questionnaire data were quantitatively analyzed by calculating the frequencies and relative frequencies. The transcribed interviews were analyzed by abductive content analysis, combining both deductive and inductive approach. James Reason's theory of human error was used as the theoretical framework. Caregiving families participating in this research were very different compared with each other. Some family caregivers and care recipients were in good physical condition while others were severely disabled. However, the situation of the families was not individually considered when considering appropriate support services for the families. The workload of family caregivers due to the pain and the absence of days off contributed to the difficulty of medication management. The foremost system-oriented challenges in the management of the medications were: 1) difficult for the families to reach the physician and 2) for those families where assisted home care helped the caregiver, the families were not satisfied with its functioning. Due to the poor availability of physicians and the lack of a family physician, there was no one in control of the medication as a whole and there was inadequate monitoring of the medication. In the assisted home care, challenges were caused by the fact that home care visits were conducted over a wide period of time, which created challenges for giving the medications. Carers do not receive sufficient support from the society for the management of the medications. The medication safety of the older adults in the family caregiving is particularly affected by the difficulty of reaching a physician, the inadequacy of support from the assisted home care, the failure to recognize the individuality of caregiving families, and the caregivers’ burden due to pain and lack of days off. Support for caregivers must be at the forefront of society in the future, so that caregivers can cope with heavy nursing care and complicated medications, even without excessive self-activity.

Herbal preparations are widely used nowadays and the information given has developed a lot during the last decades. Herbal preparations haven`t been acknowledged as medicines and therefore their efficacy and adverse effects are still often underrated. In 2005 along the changes in legislation differently legislated group of herbal preparations was retired. Nowadays herbal preparations are divided to drugs and food products. The aim of the study was to make oneself familiar with the legislation of these products and the evolution of the pharmaceutical information given. The aim also was to compare warnings, prohibitions, contraindications and their evolution to prevalent legislation. The material of the study consisted of product information summaries, patient information leaflets and labeling of herbal medicines, traditional herbal medicines and their predecessors. In addition to this there was also other legislative material. Only herbal medicines and traditional herbal medicines according to directive 2004/24/EY of the European parliament and the council`s definition were taken in to account. According to 2004/24/EY herbal medicinal products is any medicinal product, exclusively containing as active ingredients one or more herbal substances or one or more herbal preparations, or one or more such herbal substances in combination with one or more such herbal preparations. There were all together 194 products included in the study. Documentation of 184 products was found on paper in Fimea`s archives. Of the remaining five out of ten products it was found some basic information in electronic rohdos-register and of one product on an on paper final act. Data of these six products was only used partly because of its deficiencies. The data of four products wasn`t found. Under a more detailed study there was all together 184 products between 1964 and 2011. The material was divided to time periods 1964 - 1983, 1984 - 1987, 1988 - 1995, 1996 - 2005 and 2006 - 2011 by the changes in legislation. The information given of herbal preparations was the most affected by the changes in legislation in 1994 and 2005. The amount of new licenses was increasing until the time period 1988 - 1995. Licenses were granted the most during 1988 - 1955. After 1996 the amount of warnings, prohibitions and contraindications rose and many of the products that got the license in previous time period 1966 - 1955 left the market or transferred under the food legislation. As well many products with less consumption left the market because new studies demanded were expensive and cumbersome. In 2005 along the changes in legislation a clear change in attitudes came true, when a vague group of herbal preparations was removed and herbal preparations were divided into pharmaceuticals and food products. Along this change it has become easier for health care professionals to assess the risks and benefits of herbal preparations and advise the clients while making the decisions.

Between 5% and 57% of patients experience an adverse drug event during their hospitalization. Reducing medication errors can help prevent adverse drug events. A particular risk for medication errors arises when a patient moves between home and care centers if accurate medication information is not transferred with the patient. Medication reconciliation is a process to ensure accurate and comprehensive medication information across transitions of care. The aim of the study was to find out how many and what kind of discrepancies can be detected by performing medication reconciliation in a primary care unit. In addition, pharmacists and nurses experiences of the medication reconciliation process and the medication reconciliation form were examined. Both quantitative and qualitative data were used in the study. Quantitative study data consisted of all Medication reconciliation forms (PASQ) completed in January-June 2014. Data were analyzed using quantitative descriptive methods. The qualitative research material consisted of six individual interviews conducted in June 2014. The material was subjected to inductive thematic content analysis. Patients (n = 117) had a mean age of 81 years and almost all (n = 105) had at least six regularly used medications after medications were reconciled. Almost every patient (n = 115, 98.3%) had at least one discrepancy in their medication compared to the patient information system. On average, patients had seven discrepancies in their medication lists. The most discrepancies were associated with psycholeptics (9.5% of all discrepncies). The most common types of discrepancies were new drug (45.4% of all discrepancies) and discontinued drug (19.6%). Nurses and pharmacists saw the medication reconciliation process as an important part of successful patient care. Challenges associated with reconciling medications were caused by lack of time, the fragmentation of information systems and the health status of patients (information given by patients could not be trusted). Only one-third of the patients were interviewed, although international publications on medication reconciliation strongly emphasize patient involvement. The results of this study are in line with previous research and confirm the view that medication reconciliation should always be done across all transitions in care. The role of the patient as part of the medication reconciliation process should be further emphasized in the future, as only interviewing the patient can provide a true picture of the patient's medication.

The role of community pharmacy is to ensure and promote medication safety in treatment of outpatients. In Finland a national four-year medication safety program Apila was launched in 2012. The Apila program aims to improve medication safety with pharmaceutical counselling and followup, support development and implementation of new tools and practices promoting medication safety, increase awareness of medication safety as part of patient safety and increase co-operation between community pharmacies and other social- and healthcare services. The objective of this study was to investigate medication safety situation of Finnish pharmacies in the beginning of Apila program. Research data was collected electronically at the end of 2012 by using a two structured survey instruments. Target of the study was the whole pharmaceutical staff of Finnish community pharmacies. There were two separated study samples. Survey instruments were alike for both samples with the exception of one section. One survey was sent to all independent pharmacy owners (n=593) and managers of university pharmacies (n=18). The other survey was sent to one member of pharmaceutical staff in every community pharmacy (n=618) and university pharmacies (n=17). The response-rate of pharmacy owners (O) was 39 % (n=241) and response-rate of pharmaceutical staff (S) was 29 % (n=182). Representativeness of data was good compared to standard population. According to study the barriers built into the dispensing process worked well. Verifying dose (O: 100 %, S: 98 %), interactions (O: 97 %, S: 94 %) and duplicated medications (O: 79 %, S: 70 %) was a common part of dispensing process. Over half of pharmacies had a written standard operating procedure to medication counselling given when dispensing prescribed (O: 74 %, S: 60 %) and over the counter medicines (O: 60 %, S: 60 %). About 90 % of the pharmacies had a standard operating procedure to reporting and managing dispensing errors (O: 92 %, S: 84 %). According to almost all respondents (O: 96 %, S: 91 %) medication errors were reported in their workplace. Though discussing dispensing errors with whole staff (O: 73 %, S: 53 %) and changing course of action after managing dispensing errors (O: 85 %, S: 63 %) was not as common. The respondents were of the opinion that pharmacy had closer co-operation with home care and social services than with health care services. Some pharmacies had agreed with local healthcare how to manage interactions (O: 39 %, S: 23 %), contraindications (O: 36 %, S: 19 %) and prescribing errors (O: 28 %, S: 15 %) discovered in pharmacy. The study indicates that Finnish community pharmacies have good abilities to identify medication related problems. Co-operation between community pharmacies and other social- and health care services should be promoted, because it seems to be superficial. The biggest challenges in risk management are complete invocation of data collected through error reporting and including medication safety audits into quality management. Pharmacy owners' answers to the questionnaire were more positive than staff members', which indicates that actions to promote medication safety should be made more visible. Coordination of medication safety should be emphasized both national and individual pharmacy level. Low response-rates weaken the reliability of the study, but the results are suggestive.

The medication process in palliative care is prone to medication errors and their significant consequences.The complex nature of palliative care medication includes frequent use of parenteral drugs and drug mixtures. Many of the medications used parenterally are considered high-alert medications which carry a significant risk of harm if used in error. By investing in medication safety initiatives, quality of palliative care can be improved, and costs reduced. The aim of this study was to identify the most common compositions of parenteral morphine and oxycodone mixtures administered in patient units providing special level (level B) palliative and hospice care in Helsinki. Identifying the most common compositions enables further researchon standardizing mixtures and centralizing compounding to improve medication safety. This study was conducted as a retrospective medical record review. The data was extracted from the electronic client and patient record system Apotti and consisted of medication administration records of 120 patients receiving special level B palliative and hospice care in Helsinki At-home Hospital and two patient wards in Suursuo Hospital. The data was analyzed with descriptive statistics using Microsoft Excel program. Patient characteristics, including age and ICD-10 diagnosis groups were analyzed. The most common drug combinations used in the mixtures and the combinations with the most variation were identified. Four drug combinations with the most unique compositions were selected for further analysis in which drug concentrations and daily drug doses were analyzed based on continuous infusion rates. 182 drug mixtures including morphine and 147 including oxycodone were identified. A diluent (NaCl 0.9%) was used in 225 mixtures and most often (178/225) the mixtures were diluted into volume of 20 ml. The most frequently used drug combination was comprised of morphine, midazolam, and haloperidol (26.4%), followed by the combination of oxycodone, midazolam, and haloperidol (21.8%). These combinations were also among the four combinations with the most unique compositions with the combination of oxycodone and midazolam and the combination of morphine, midazolam, haloperidol and glycopyrronium. In the four drug combinations with the most unique compositions, the variation was often relatively minor, and the largest variations were observed in opioid components: especially morphine was used in a wide variety of concentrations (2.00–17.91 mg/ml) and daily doses (15–260 mg). Most of the mixtures selected for further review (89/96) were compounded to provide a continuous infusion over a period of four days. In the studied units, mixtures with comparable compositions and features were frequently utilized, suggesting that standardization may be a feasible way to improve medication safety and quality of care in palliative care. As most of the mixtures were administered via PCA, standardization could be particularly advantageous. While it may be possible to standardize and centrally compound mixtures used in this study, more research is needed in several aspects, including physiochemical properties of the mixtures, meeting the clinical requirements in the units, and understanding the underlying factors behind medicine prescribing.

Medication safety meaning the safety of using medication is an important part of patient safety. Medication errors are the most common preventable threats of patient safety. Medication errors can occur in all stages of the medication process. Rather than blaming individuals involved in the process, incidents should be evaluated based on system thinking with an aim of identifying system and process-based weaknesses allowing errors to happen. James Reason's human error theory provides a good framework to investigate the topic from this perspective. The objective of this study was to gather information on the medication errors based on the Patient Insurance Centre 2013-2014 data of compensated medication errors. One of the aims was to identify different types of medication errors and gather information on their backgrounds and drugs involved. Another aim was to investigate the causes behind the medication errors and the views of the people involved on the contributin factors of these errors. Additionally the study aimed at identifying situations where interprofessional collaboration could have prevented medication errors from occurring. Finally the results of the study were also compared with the results of the earlier studies done using similar data. The data of the study consisted of 205 cases where medication error had caused compensated patient injury. Factors behind the errors were analyzed using descriptive statistics. The examples of most common cases were investigated more in depth through simplified root-cause analysis. Content analyses were used to gather information on the views of the people involved in errors as well as on the possibilities of preventing errors through interprofessional collaboration. The most frequent error type was omission of medication. The majority of the errors occurred in the early stages of the process when decisions on medication and treatment were done. There were altogether 250 drugs in the data out of which 98 different active ingredients were identified. Antithrombotic agents were the most common therapeutic group causing medication errors. 37% of all drugs included in data were classified as high alert medicines. More efficient use of the interprofessional collaboration could have prevented several medication errors. The number of medication errors had somewhat increased compared to earlier studies but the profiles of errors were very similar. The data of Patient Insurance Centre provides valuable information on medication errors across Finland. More accurate information on factors leading to medication errors could be obtained by improving voluntary nationwide reporting. This would make it easier to develop operating models that improve patient safety.

Pitkäaikaiset lääkitykset lisääntyvät jatkuvasti kroonisten sairauksien yleistymisen ja väestön ikääntymisen takia. Pitkäaikaisten sairauksien hoidossa lääkehoitojen rationaalisuus korostuu, mutta WHO:n arvioiden mukaan noin puolet lääkkeiden määräämisestä, toimittamisesta, käytöstä ja myynnistä toteutuu epärationaalisesti. Tämä lisää terveydenhuollon ammattilaisten vastuuta lääkehoidon vaikutusten seurannassa ja potilaan hoitoon sitouttamisessa myös reseptien uudistamisessa. Reseptien uudistamiskäytäntöjä on kuitenkin tutkittu vähän niin Suomessa kuin maailmanlaajuisesti. Tässä pro gradu -tutkielmassa tavoitteena oli tarkastella nykyisiä reseptien uudistamiskäytäntöjä perusterveydenhuollon lääkäreiden näkökulmasta. Tavoitteena oli tarkastella, minkälaiset tekijät vaikuttavat lääkäreiden työskentelyyn sekä potilaan lääkehoidon kokonaisuuden hallintaan ja turvallisuuteen reseptien uudistamistilanteissa. Lisäksi kartoitettiin lääkäreiden ratkaisuehdotuksia uudistamiskäytäntöjen kehittämiseksi. Tutkimus toteutettiin laadullisena monimenetelmätutkimuksena Kirkkonummen terveysasemilla. Tutkimuksessa hyödynnettiin triangulaatiota ja tutkimusaineisto koostui reseptien uudistamistilanteiden varjostuksesta sekä kahdesta lääkäreiden ryhmähaastattelusta. Tutkimukseen osallistui yhteensä 12 lääkäriä, joista viisi osallistui varjostusvaiheeseen ja seitsemän haastatteluvaiheeseen. Aineisto kerättiin huhti-heinäkuun 2019 aikana. Tutkimuksen teoreettisena viitekehyksenä oli inhimillisen erehdyksen teoriaan perustuva järjestelmälähtöinen näkökulma. Tutkimusaineisto analysoitiin aineistolähtöisellä sisällönanalyysillä, jossa varjostus- ja haastatteluaineistosta etsittiin tutkimuksen tavoitteiden kannalta merkittäviä ilmaisuja. Reseptien uudistaminen on lääkäreiden näkökulmasta monivaiheinen prosessi. Prosessiin vaikuttivat useat uudistamista helpottavat ja vaikeuttavat järjestelmä-, potilas- ja lääkelähtöiset tekijät. Lääkärit tunnistivat ongelmakohtia uudistamisprosessin jokaisesta vaiheesta. Lääkäreiden mukaan etenkin tietojärjestelmien epäkäytännölliset ominaisuudet ja tekniset ongelmat sekä ajantasaisten lääkitystietojen ja tiedonkulun puutteet olivat uudistamistilanteissa ongelmallisia ja tekivät uudistamisesta työlästä. Myös kiire ja uudistettavien reseptien suuri määrä vaikeuttivat uudistamista. Ongelmien takia lääkärit kokivat, ettei lääkehoitojen seurantaa voitu tehdä uudistamistilanteessa perusteellisesti. Lääkäreiden ehdotuksia uudistamisprosessin kehittämiseen olivat uudistamisen parempi koordinointi, tietojärjestelmien ja tiedonvälityksen kehittäminen sekä moniammatillisen yhteistyön ja potilaan osallistamisen lisääminen.