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Medication Safety, Quality & Accreditation Solutions
Medication Accreditation & Safety – Joint Commission Preparedness
Medication errors are the most frequent error in healthcare today and are among the top reasons for standard non-compliance for The Joint Commission.
Fortunately, Clinical Pharmacy Associates provides consulting services and support tools to promote medication safety and performance compliance to meet Joint Commission standards, Leapfrog Group Safe Practice Survey and the National Quality Forum's Safe Practices for Better Healthcare. Our service is medication-focused on the most widely prescribed therapies.
Hospital and health systems, ambulatory care centers and home care providers have all called on CPA to help them:
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Create a safe environment for patient medication use
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Design fail-safe systems approach programs for medication use
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Develop efficient use of personnel and information technology to maximize safety
Our clinical pharmacy experts work with client healthcare institutions to conduct performance and safety programs by drawing on the following:
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Operational Process mapping
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Failure Mode and Effects Analysis (FMEA)
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Medication use risk assessments
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Concurrent medical record medication use compliance scoring
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Quarterly Quality Self Benchmarking Program with Utilization Dashboard
Risk Evaluation & Mitigation
Hospitals, physicians and pharmacists continue to struggle with the management of high-alert drugs and the need to eliminate adverse drug events (ADE), ensuring patient health and safety while reducing health costs. According to the Institute of Medicine (IOM), medication-related adverse events are a significant cause of medial error and account for a large portion of the mortality (up to 98,000 deaths annually) with increased hospital costs of up to $29 billion per year*.
The Food and Drug Administration Amendment Act of 2007 gave the FDA the authority to require a Risk Evaluation and Mitigation Strategy (REMS) from manufacturers to ensure that the benefits of a drug or biological product outweigh its risk. The result is that along with the requirements for product safety labeling changes and additional post-approval studies to assess serious drug risk, the FDA can now require pharmaceutical companies to conduct REMS.
On the surface, these strategies appear to be focused on the pharmaceutical companies; however, healthcare organizations and professionals have a duty to assure communication and notice to patients in many cases. This could include development of medication guides, patient communication methods, tracking programs, documentation and implementation of elements to assure safe use.
Your REMS program should include the following steps:
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Conduct an analysis of current risk assessment/reduction plans including REMS.
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Based on findings, plans, processes and procedures need to be quickly instituted.
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Proactive process must be incorporated into formulary and adverse drug event process.
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Quantifiers need to be assigned to be able to assess success of activities.
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Plans, process and procedures then should be modified as needed.
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These activities must be interdisciplinary.
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The reviews need to be a routine and ongoing function.
CPA Advisors consultants can implement a comprehensive REMS program to help you address state and FDA regulatory compliance.
* Institute of Medicine: Preventing Medication Errors: Quality Chasm Series, 2006
CE/CME Courses
Clinical Pharmacy Associates offers healthcare providers a variety of on-line continuing medication education and competency training programs. Created by trained clinicians, they help to provide pharmacists, nurses and physicians with the most up-to-date skills and career-enhancing professional experiences while serving such institutional goals as:
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Maintaining clinical staff competency on medications
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Providing evidence based drug information
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Keeping physicians abreast of current drug therapy issues
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Serving continuing education needs
Among the courses, there are topic-specific programs on high-risk drug therapies with application for patient treatments including, for example, drugs used in the treatment of pain and strategies for preventing DVT's. |
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