Outpatient Surgery Magazine

Her Loss, Their Gain - October 2019 - Subscribe to Outpatient Surgery Magazine

Outpatient Surgery Magazine, providing current information on Surgical Services, Surgical Facility Administration, Outpatient Surgery News and Trends, OR Excellence and more.

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The problem of administration errors concerned our team so much that we researched all the available literature and organizational guidelines we could find that touch on medication safety. After whit- tling down all of the tips and findings we uncovered, we were left with 35 unique medication safety recommendations that all surgical facilities should consider in order to assess and correct vulnerabili- ties. (Our complete paper is at osmag.net/bZ7WgJ.) In this article, we'll briefly cover some of the most important ones. • Accurate patient information. Before administering medications in the OR, you need a complete, accurate medication reconciliation for the patient. All medications should be entered in a standard for- mat in the patient's chart, and have a single location for recording medications administered across the surgical process, including pre- op and PACU, to avoid errors like double-dosing. Pre-op time outs should include the patient's weight, allergies and medication informa- tion such as which antibiotics have been given and when redosing would be needed. Anesthesia providers must be familiar about any patient condition or medication, such as allergies and drug-drug inter- actions, that could affect the types or dosages of medications to be administered. • Culture change. One of the most commonly mentioned recom- mendations in the literature and in guidelines is that every institution needs to have a non-punitive incident reporting system for the report- ing and analysis of medication incidents, whether they harmed a patient or not. Medication safety requires a culture change, where there is respect and collaboration rather than judgment; you don't want people to feel badly about mistakes, nor do you want staff mem- bers to hesitate to report their colleagues for fear of getting someone else in "trouble" (unless it's a willful violation). Each institution should establish a voluntary, blame-free, non-punitive system for error O C T O B E R 2 0 1 9 • O U T PA T I E N T S U R G E R Y. N E T • 5 3

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