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A Deep Dive Into Surface Disinfection - October 2017 - 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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4. Strengthen handoff procedures. Mistakes made during patient handoffs can lead to future medications errors. Always take a few minutes to ensure transitions of care are done properly and the needed information is shared among providers in different phases of the perioperative pathway. Checklists are very effective in ensuring a patient's medication histo- ry, medication allergies and potential drug-drug interactions are cov- ered, even in time-pressured environments. Also address medications that have already been administered — antibiotics, anesthetics, nar- cotics — so there's no chance of repeat dosing without knowledge of a previous dose. Create your own checklist based on the medication needs of your patient population and the specific types of surgeries your facility hosts. 5. Avoid common pitfalls. Dr. Wahr says it's imperative to foster a non-punitive, real-time error reporting system, so you can quickly identify breakdowns in medication administration processes that set your providers up to fail. For example, use "tall man" lettering to differentiate similarly spelled medications and store drugs with look-alike and sound- alike names in non-adjacent bins in the anesthesia tray. 6. Standardize. Standardize anesthesia drug trays in every OR, says Dr. Wahr. She suggests you develop a basic tray that's used during every case, and add ancillary trays for specific surgeries that require additional medications. Prefilled, premixed medications eliminate having concentrated medications, or drugs that need to be diluted, in the anesthesia cart and help ensure the right dose of the right medica- tion is administered. 8 2 • O U T PA T I E N T S U R G E R Y M A G A Z I N E • O C T O B E R 2 0 1 7 SURGICAL ERRORS

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