Preventing Medication Errors at Home


Book Description

Your home probably has some sort of pain relief medication, something to combat bouts of allergies, and maybe a few vitamins or supplements from the local health store. And then there are the prescribed medications, the ones you're taking daily and those that you take "as needed". But do you ever wonder how your medications work, what is the best time to take each, or how that pain relief tablet, those allergy meds, and prescription drugs interact when taken at the same time? Or how your newly prescribed antibiotic reacts with that glass of wine you had with dinner? Preventing Medication Errors at Home tells you what you need to know about those medications in your house and how each can improve your health and possibly cause harm. With drug therapy being a major part of conventional medical treatment, and so many medications available over-the-counter, tens of thousands of people in the United States alone die every year from side effects related to their diabetes, pain, depression and blood-thinning medications, and roughly one million people are admitted to the hospital for drug-related issues. At least half of these disasters are preventable with proper awareness of how drugs work, how to take them properly, how to identify serious side effects, and how to avoid dangerous drug combinations. Dr. Simon Haroutounian presents an engaging, easy-to-read book to help you take responsibility for your medications. Learning how to ask the right questions before you start a new medication is likely to improve your health, and possibly save your life.




Preventing Medication Errors


Book Description

In 1996 the Institute of Medicine launched the Quality Chasm Series, a series of reports focused on assessing and improving the nation's quality of health care. Preventing Medication Errors is the newest volume in the series. Responding to the key messages in earlier volumes of the seriesâ€"To Err Is Human (2000), Crossing the Quality Chasm (2001), and Patient Safety (2004)â€"this book sets forth an agenda for improving the safety of medication use. It begins by providing an overview of the system for drug development, regulation, distribution, and use. Preventing Medication Errors also examines the peer-reviewed literature on the incidence and the cost of medication errors and the effectiveness of error prevention strategies. Presenting data that will foster the reduction of medication errors, the book provides action agendas detailing the measures needed to improve the safety of medication use in both the short- and long-term. Patients, primary health care providers, health care organizations, purchasers of group health care, legislators, and those affiliated with providing medications and medication- related products and services will benefit from this guide to reducing medication errors.




Preventing Medication Errors and Improving Drug Therapy Outcomes


Book Description

Read this book in order to learn: Why medicines often fail to produce the desired result and how such failures can be avoided How to think about drug product safety and effectiveness How the main participants in a medications use system can improve outcomes and how professional and personal values, attitudes, and ethical reasoning fit into




Preventing Medication Errors


Book Description

In 1996 the Institute of Medicine launched the Quality Chasm Series, a series of reports focused on assessing and improving the nation's quality of health care. Preventing Medication Errors is the newest volume in the series. Responding to the key messages in earlier volumes of the seriesâ€"To Err Is Human (2000), Crossing the Quality Chasm (2001), and Patient Safety (2004)â€"this book sets forth an agenda for improving the safety of medication use. It begins by providing an overview of the system for drug development, regulation, distribution, and use. Preventing Medication Errors also examines the peer-reviewed literature on the incidence and the cost of medication errors and the effectiveness of error prevention strategies. Presenting data that will foster the reduction of medication errors, the book provides action agendas detailing the measures needed to improve the safety of medication use in both the short- and long-term. Patients, primary health care providers, health care organizations, purchasers of group health care, legislators, and those affiliated with providing medications and medication- related products and services will benefit from this guide to reducing medication errors.




Medication Errors


Book Description

In this expanded 600+ page edition, Dr. Cohen brings together some 30 experts from pharmacy, medicine, nursing, and risk management to provide the most current thinking about the causes of medication errors and strategies to prevent them.




Lippincott's Guide to Preventing Medication Errors


Book Description

Learn to avoid or to address medication errors by focusing on the five "rights" of nursing drug administration: the right patient, the right drug, the right dose, the right route, and the right time. Introductory chapter explains what drugs are and how they work, and the role of nurses in drug administration. Actual medication errors are interspersed throughout the text, presented as case examples, and supported by a comprehensive index, including court cases, drug names, and types of errors. Also offers several appendices, including dangerous drug interactions, antidotes for poisoning and overdose, common pharmacologic abbreviations, and a quick-reference conversion chart.




Advances in Patient Safety


Book Description

v. 1. Research findings -- v. 2. Concepts and methodology -- v. 3. Implementation issues -- v. 4. Programs, tools and products.




Improving Medication Management in Home Care


Book Description

Help stop the widespread problem of medication errors among the elderly The problem of medication errors among the elderly is widespread. Improving Medication Management in Home Care: Issues and Solutions tackles this tough issue by closely examining the challenges faced in preventing medication errors in home and community care program settings and putting forth effective solutions to better manage medication use. Respected experts discuss the unique role of the pharmacist in improving patient safety, presenting a comprehensive collection of evidence-based studies featuring national and international viewpoints, cutting-edge interventions, and cost-effective procedures that address medication problems in older adults. Polypharmacy is the term used for patients receiving too many medications for a specific treatment. The implications for drug-drug interactions can be dangerous for the unaware patient. Improving Medication Management in Home Care: Issues and Solutions focuses on several different effective management programs and examines each in detail, completely explaining the positive—and negative—results. This hands-on practical information is useful for all professionals and field providers working with older adults and their medication concerns. The book also provides valuable lessons through the experiences of national home health leaders in various settings—hospital-based, rural, large or small, etc., as well as community-based programs for dually eligable older adults. The book is extensively referenced and includes an abundance of clear, helpful tables, figures, and Web resources. Improving Medication Management in Home Care: Issues and Solutions explores: developing computerized risk assessment screenings implementing pharmacist-centered interventions improving transitional care from hospital to home the Prescription Intervention and Lifelong Learning (PILL) program Medication Therapy Management Services a quality-improvement project to reduce falls and improve medication management outcome-based quality improvement for patient safety intern programs that can provide cost-effective consultant services Improving Medication Management in Home Care: Issues and Solutions is essential reading for home health care administrators, clinicians, managers, pharmacists, physicians, educators, students, those professionals involved in the field of aging, and health practitioners world-wide.




Patient Safety and Quality


Book Description

"Nurses play a vital role in improving the safety and quality of patient car -- not only in the hospital or ambulatory treatment facility, but also of community-based care and the care performed by family members. Nurses need know what proven techniques and interventions they can use to enhance patient outcomes. To address this need, the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ), with additional funding from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, has prepared this comprehensive, 1,400-page, handbook for nurses on patient safety and quality -- Patient Safety and Quality: An Evidence-Based Handbook for Nurses. (AHRQ Publication No. 08-0043)." - online AHRQ blurb, http://www.ahrq.gov/qual/nurseshdbk/




Crossing the Quality Chasm


Book Description

Second in a series of publications from the Institute of Medicine's Quality of Health Care in America project Today's health care providers have more research findings and more technology available to them than ever before. Yet recent reports have raised serious doubts about the quality of health care in America. Crossing the Quality Chasm makes an urgent call for fundamental change to close the quality gap. This book recommends a sweeping redesign of the American health care system and provides overarching principles for specific direction for policymakers, health care leaders, clinicians, regulators, purchasers, and others. In this comprehensive volume the committee offers: A set of performance expectations for the 21st century health care system. A set of 10 new rules to guide patient-clinician relationships. A suggested organizing framework to better align the incentives inherent in payment and accountability with improvements in quality. Key steps to promote evidence-based practice and strengthen clinical information systems. Analyzing health care organizations as complex systems, Crossing the Quality Chasm also documents the causes of the quality gap, identifies current practices that impede quality care, and explores how systems approaches can be used to implement change.