medsafetyonline

A forum for caregivers and pharmacy professionals concerned with patient and provider safety.

competency

Introducing RxWORKFLOW for Vaccine Safety™

by Leave a Comment

While we are all facing the challenges of this pandemic and with one of the primary focus points being the development of a vaccine, we at RxTOOLKIT® are excited to announce a new RxWORKFLOW™ collection that will be invaluable to anyone who administers vaccines.

Did you realize that there are 85 different vaccine products approved for use by the FDA? While some of them are reserved for use by the military or only in emergency situations, there are 67 that are available for use on a non-emergency basis.

In addition, vaccines are a major cause of medication errors as reported by the Institute of Medication Practices (ISMP). Among the reported findings*:

  • Most reported errors with vaccines reach the patient, as opposed to being a near miss or hazardous condition.
  • Most of the reported errors occurred in medical clinics, physician practices, hospital (ambulatory), and public health immunization clinics.
  • The four most commonly reported types of errors involving vaccines were: wrong vaccine administered, wrong age (i.e. patient not correct age for vaccine being given), extra dose, and expired vaccine.
  • More than half of the events involving administration of the wrong vaccine were associated with similarities in vaccine names, abbreviations, or labeling/packaging.

RxWORKFLOW for Vaccine Safety™ has built-in features to address all four of the most commonly reported types of errors involving vaccines issues responsible for confusion and medication errors around vaccines:

  1. Wrong Vaccine / Wrong Name:
    • Solutions:
      • Full-color images and link to the package insert provide visual identification of the correct vaccine
      • Information and links are provided regarding reporting adverse vaccine events
  2. Wrong Age:
    • Solution:
      • Indications section clearly identifies if age is a consideration
  3. Extra Dose:
    • Solutions:
      • Indication and vaccine schedule for routine and catch-up vaccination
      • Directions for preparing and administering the vaccine, including the dose, vials/containers to use, route of administration, and any special precautions
  4. Expired Vaccine:
    • Solution:
      • Clearly stated and specific storage requirements are provided

The RxWORKFLOW for Vaccine Safety™ collection will provide a vital reference source to infusion centers, physician practices, pharmacies, hospital (ambulatory), medical clinics, and public health immunization locations. And yes, as the COVID-19 vaccines become available, they too will be included!

Also available (coming soon) is a vaccine education course with a test so that you can provide vaccine safety competency training for your staff.

 

For more information about RxWORKFLOW™:

 

* https://www.ismp.org/news/ismp-releases-biannual-report-vaccination-errors

Ensuring Drug Specific Competency for Infusion Center Clinicians

by Leave a Comment

As with any occupation, there’s a lot to know in order to become a competent and proficient professional. Healthcare is no different. Based on your specific discipline, be it pharmacy, nursing, or physician, there are skills and tasks that are essential to the successful completion of your responsibilities.

For infusion center clinicians, the most essential information is undoubtedly in-depth drug knowledge. That includes knowledge of: drug preparation, drug administration, patient response(s) to drugs, and what to do in the event of an adverse patient reaction. In an article published in the British Journal of Clinical Pharmacology[1], Jeffrey K. Aronson explains the following (as it relates to medication errors):

Errors are first broken down into two separate categories:

1. Mistakes
2. Skill-based errors

Mistakes are then divided into two categories:

1. Knowledge based errors
2. Rule-based errors

Skill-based errors are divided into two categories as well:

1. Action based errors (slips)
2. Memory based errors (lapses)

What does this mean to the infusion center clinician?

To prevent both rule-based and action-based errors, we recommend utilizing RxTOOLKIT’s RxWORKFLOW for IV Safety™. These user-friendly drug specific monographs provide interactive reference, tools, and procedural information, right where every clinician really needs them, at the point of care. Within each drug specific monograph, the “rules” for drug preparation and administration are presented in an easy to follow format that guides the clinician through a safe and consistent process.

RxWORKFLOW for IV Safety also helps to prevent “slips” by providing drug specific on-the-spot tools that assist in preparation or administration (RxQuickCALC™, RxCALC™, and RxDoseCHECK™). These tools are always what you need for that specific drug and include step-by-step instructions, tapering tables, and automated calculations helping clinicians to avoid an action based error.

So how do you address Knowledge and Memory Based Errors?

Let’s start with Knowledge Based Errors.

RxTOOLKIT provides a Drug Specific Competency Tracking Program in our popular LMS platform, RxTOOLKIT eLEARNING. Drug Specific Competency Tracking is an ongoing program that was built specifically for training, certification, and tracking of drug knowledge. The program provides drug specific courses with interactive assignments and competency exams. Clinicians can retake the courses periodically whenever their certification expires (as determined by your organization). This program enables clinicians (and their managers) to verify that their drug knowledge is complete and up to date.

To help with Memory Based Errors, which the author describes as “lapses”, we return to the point of care, right inside every RxWORKFLOW for IV Safety monograph, where clinicians find up-to-date, standardized, and easily “scanable” reference help to ensure your staff is familiar with both a drug and related dosing parameters. It’s easy to find a fast answer, there’s even a Quick Summary section, consolidating drug specific tools and providing quick reference, helping to confirm the necessary parameters and increasing caregiver confidence.

RxTOOLKIT’s goal is to provide the infusion center clinician a single source of standardized reference, tools, and training. We can help any center to establish standardization in practice and staff training and ensure their positive patient outcomes.

For more information about these two awesome tools, RxWORKFLOW for IV Safety and Drug Specific Competency Tracking, check out these short videos, contact us, or visit RxTOOLKIT.com.

 

 

[1] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2723196/pdf/bcp0067-0599.pdf