How do your medication management processes weigh up?
1.
2. Errors occur on 8.4% of medication administration events
This would mean:
1 x resident administered medication 3 x a day = 84%
chance of receiving a medication administrator error every
week and a 99.9% chance every month
3.
4. In Managing and Administering Medication in Care
Homes for Older People
It is suggested care home residents are prescribed an
average of 7-8medications per person per day
Residents in care homes are commonly prescribed
multiple medications at the same
time, given their complex health conditions
5.
6. Now consider that the primary tools
being used by the majority of care
home providers to manage their
residents’ medications still revolve
around paper-based systems with
significant limitations
7. It becomes very challenging to provide the
highest levels of safe and quality
care, while using a manual approach to
medication management
8. The medication management process within
a care homes is extremely complex
Providers are responsible for
receiving, administering and documenting
large volumes of medications on a daily basis
This process draws on information from
a range of sources and requires
involvement from numerous internal and
external healthcare professionals
9. Strengthening the
partnerships between the
doctors, pharmacies and
care homes facilities
Streamlining the workflows that support
medication administration in care homes
15. Not only do these
distractions negatively
impact staff
productivity, they can also
lead to serious
compliance risks
including signature
omissions
Typically, the process of
administering medications
to residents takes place in
the midst of a
lengthy, demanding and
disrupted medication round
16. Configurations prevent staff from proceeding with
medication administration until a signature has been
recorded
Intuitive alerts prompt staff to log onto a
mobile device at the point of medication
administration, ensuring that the medications
to be administered within a given time period
are electronically tagged with a date, time and
signature
Eliminating signature omissions is a critical part of
maintaining compliance
It can be achieved INSTANTLY with the implementation of an EMM system
17. Right documentation
Right resident
Right medication
Right route
Right dose
Right time
R’s
These safety alerts further support accreditation
requirements by enforcing the six R’s of correct
medication administration:
18. Staff are prompted to enter the reason
for why the PRN was administered
In instances where EMM integrates with
an electronic clinical system, this
information is automatically recorded within
a progress note to ensure more effective
evaluation of PRN medications
EMM also provides further safeguarding against
the compliance risks associated with the
administration of PRN ‘as required’ medications
20. This process is not only
cumbersome, but can easily increase
the opportunity for discrepancies and
errors
21. Centralised, electronic medication administration
records (eMAR) also ensure staff focus on only the
specific medications due to be administered within
a given time period
EMM systems offer a tangible boost to efficiency
and productivity by saving staff from manually
sorting through paper-based medication records to
determine what medication is due at what time
23. Traditional medication management
processes often requires Registered or
Enrolled Nurses (RN) to manage hundreds, if
not thousands, of medications for residents
EMM reduces the pressure of these
tasks by providing a common electronic
record that can be accessed by all
authorised staff within a care home
26. This helps care home providers to ensure that their
organisation’s medication administration processes and
records are always completed to the highest standard
of quality
27. Management can easily and quickly obtain access to
data in real-time including medications
administered, medications missed, PRNs and more
With functionality to electronically capture data and
centralise this information, EMM also increases
visibility of medication management processes
throughout an entire organisation
This electronic data can also be analysed to improve
decision making and resident health outcomes
29. CHUM study found 50% of all communication-
related medication errors occurred between the
care home and the pharmacy
EMM systems streamline the documentation
requirements of medication management by
facilitating electronic communication with the
pharmacy
32. The entire social care sector faces challenges
with recruiting and retaining qualified staff
These challenges are compounding with a shrinking
workforce, and increasing workloads for those who
remain in the industry
35. Staff are freed from the intensive
documentation and administrative duties and
given more time to focus on providing safe
and high quality care
36.
37. When implemented correctly, electronic
systems that provide critical clinical and
medication information at the point of care play
a critical role in:
Reducing system-wide
inefficiencies, compliance risks and
pressure on staff
Improving resident safety
38. www.icarehealth.co.uk
iCareHealth is a social care
software provider that
specialises in electronic
medication management
www.icarehealth.co.uk
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