Essay - Hospital I - Patient Focused Functions Hospital I - Patient-focused...

Hospital I - Patient Focused Functions

HOSPITAL I - PATIENT-FOCUSED FUNCTIONS

The JCAHO recently updated hospital standard requirements on medication storage to ensure that these avoidable medication errors will be eradicated. This standard pertains ***** all medications such as prescription medications, sample medications, herbal remedies, vitamins, over-the-counter drugs, vaccines, diagnostic and contrast agents, radioactive medications, parenteral nutrition, and any product considered by the Food ***** Drug Administration (FDA) as a drug (Fogel, Todd, Wilson, *****nd Como, 2006). In the revised standard MM.2.20, JCAHO requires that only approved medications are routinely stocked or stored. Medications should be properly stored based on temperature, humidity, and protection from light. ***** should also be secured in accordance with the laws, regulations, ad organizational policies to strictly regulate those who can access them; the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) defines a secured storage as a sealed or locked container or locked room kept under constant surveillance by nurses (Rich, 2004). Controlled substances should ***** stored properly according to state and federal ***** and regulations. All expired, damaged, or contaminated medications must be segregated until they are removed from the *****. Medications that look alike or sound alike ***** be properly segregated in all areas and should ***** alphabetized accordingly. Stored medications should be carefully la*****led; *****ir ********** ***** have the correct name of the drug, its expiration date, and warnings. Concentrations ***** ***** should be carefully individualized according to the needs of the patient. ***** s*****red medications must be periodic*****y inspected by hospital authority to ensure that these st*****ards are ***** reinforced.

***** ***** are all too common in any hospital sett*****g. In one documented incident, an emergency room (ER) patient was given a 10mg-dose of hydromorphone inste***** of a 10-mg dose of morphine, despite ER nurses accounting its presence on each shift. Although ***** is not normally stored in the ER, a box ***** 10mg/mL 1-ml *****mpules of hydromorphone was sent to the department for ***** oncology *****. However, this was never ***** by pharmacy after it was used. Because the packaging of hydromorphone was very similar ***** the morphine *****, the wrong dispense of hydromorphone was an inevitable incident (Pap*****lla, 2008).

The correct dosage, labeling, and dispense of medications to patients is an important and vital issue in every health care setting; the simplest, minute error in dosage can possibly cause a patient's life. Many *****s used ***** hospitals have similar sounding names, and ***** are even packaged similarly, which makes ***** at increased risk for receiving the wrong drugs. There is certainly a need for hospital organiz*****ions to create a system in efficiently ********** accurately s*****ring ***** to diminish mundane and fatal medication errors. Traditionally, hospitals depend on pharmacists ***** control the kind of medications being dispensed to *****s, including the ones sent home by patients or their families (Rich, 2004). However, the occurrence of medication errors has demanded a multidisciplin*****ry approach.

***** one study, an organization attempted to implement these standards and involved staff members within and outside the