• Skip to secondary menu
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer

medsafetyonline

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

  • About
  • Post Index
  • Resources
  • RxTOOLKIT®
  • Current Events
  • Contact

medication error

Ensuring Drug Specific Competency for Infusion Center Clinicians

May 29, 2019 by Chuck DiTrapano RPh 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

Filed Under: Competency, Medication Safety Tagged With: competency, LMS, medication error, medication safety, nursing, patient and provider safety, prevention, RxTOOLKIT

Pharmacy Technicians: The Invisible Asset

March 11, 2019 by Chuck DiTrapano RPh Leave a Comment

If you have ever had a prescription filled in a pharmacy, received an IV infusion in a hospital, or received a medication in a nursing home, you have received services from a pharmacy technician. Who are these people? How are they trained?

The answer to these questions is both complex and inconsistent but can be summarized in one phrase, “it depends.” This post will provide some background about my own experience with pharmacy technicians, explore the current regulatory landscape, and provide some suggestions for how we can move forward.

Pharmacist Mate – NEC HM-8242

One of my first positions as a pharmacist was as a pharmacy officer at the US Naval Hospital in Philadelphia. That job caused me to fall in love with both the Navy and Philadelphia, as well as, to develop a special appreciation for pharmacy technicians. The Navy Enlisted Classification (NEC) for a pharmacy technician is NEC HM-8242. The pharmacy technicians are trained first as hospital corpsman and then they attend a 12-week course at the joint Medical Education and Training Campus (METC) in San Antonio, Texas. That’s 26-weeks total in military style training, 8-hour days, 5 days a week.

Naval pharmacy technicians perform the same type of tasks in naval hospitals as civilian pharmacy technicians. Among those duties are dispensing, sterile compounding, non-sterile compounding, automated dispensing cabinet management, and purchasing. Besides the work that they do in naval hospitals, they also serve “independent duty”. Independent duty involves work on naval war ships. These individuals can also be deployed to FMF (fleet marine force) to serve in combat areas.

After the intense training and military service, these healthcare professionals know their job and they do it well. Many of the pharmacy technicians that I knew went on to become pharmacists after leaving the Navy, one even later reentered the Navy and became the service chief for all naval pharmacists.

This experience provided me awareness and appreciation for the intensity of the training provided, the required skill sets, and the complex nature of the job of pharmacy technician.

Hospital Pharmacy Technicians

After my tour in the Navy, I spent the bulk of my career as a practicing hospital pharmacist, with many pharmacy technicians working under my supervision.

Typically, there is not a single dose of a medication in any hospital pharmacy that does not pass through the hands of at least one pharmacy technician prior to administration. They are extremely valuable team members but very few patients ever realize the complexities and importance of their role.

The Corner Drug Store

Pharmacy technicians also play an important role in retail pharmacy. They work “behind the counter” assisting pharmacists in the preparation and dispensing of medications. Retail pharmacy technicians must also learn about insurance plans, co-pays, and the use of generic medications so they are equipped to handle patient questions.

What do the Regulations Say?

Pharmacy technician certification or registration is controlled at the state level and not the federal level. As you can imagine, states are all over the board at this time, but that is changing.

The chart below shows the number of certified pharmacy technicians per 100,000 people in each state. The states with the orange bars are the states that have no regulations regarding pharmacy technicians. It’s easy to see that in states working to recognize this valuable resource and establish minimum standards of competency, the ratio of CPhT’s to the population rises dramatically.

The good news is that virtually every state in looking at legislation to regulate pharmacy technicians and the number of states regulating pharmacy technician training has increased steadily over the last 10 years.

While many states do not specifically define the duties of pharmacy technicians, some states mandate pharmacy technician to pharmacist work ratios. Common ratios are 2 to 1 or 3 to 1, meaning 2 technicians to 1 pharmacist in the workplace.

Unfortunately still, in most states (including my home state of Pennsylvania), licensure is not required. Registration is not required. There is no minimum skill proficiency required. Training is often provided on the job with no organized standards (though many organizations establish their own set of requirements which can vary widely).

In Ohio in 2005, there was no registration or licensure of pharmacy technicians. That changed in February of 2006. Only after Emily Jerry’s tragic death, through the formation of the Emily Jerry Foundation, and by the perseverance of her dad, Emily’s Law was passed–requiring certification, background checks, and minimum standards of practice for pharmacy technicians.

I guess that it’s human nature to only react after there is a tragedy. Do we really need to wait for a tragedy like this to happen in all of the states that still currently have no standards of practice? I sure hope not!

As you can imagine, the various requirements and differences across state lines creates confusion, inconsistency, and problems for both organizations and pharmacy technicians.

PTCB

The Pharmacy Technician Certification Board provides a nationally recognized exam to measure competency for pharmacy technicians. Once a technician achieves certification, they, like practicing pharmacists, must also obtain continuing educations credits to keep their skills up to date and relevant. Pharmacy technicians that have received certification from PTCB are required to complete 20 hours of continuing educations every 2 years.

Certification (CPhT) is achieved by passing a nation exam administered by PTCB. The exam covers a wide variety of subject matter, all of which would be included in the daily tasks of a pharmacy technician.

RxTOOLKIT in Action

We, at RxTOOLKIT, see the lack of standardization and training for pharmacy technicians as a significant patient safety issue and have made the decision to act.

RxTOOLKIT eLEARNING™ was developed in direct response to these observations. Our mission is to provide specialized online training with both clinical and operational focus to increase safety, expand competency, boost confidence, and ensure successful patient outcomes.

RxTOOLKIT eLEARNING™ has also recently partnered with TRC Healthcare (Authors of Pharmacist’s Letter and Pharmacy Technician’s Letter) in advancement of Pharmacy Technicians University (PTU). This online competency‐based curriculum provides all of the tools and information needed to prepare techs for the job and the national certification exam. Pharmacy Technicians University meets or exceeds requirements for technician training in all 50 states and Washington, D.C.

Our goal is to increase the pool of qualified pharmacy technicians as all states move toward certification. We do this for all the reasons I’ve articulated in this post. It is a complex and extremely important job and we need qualified pharmacy technicians!

Want to get involved?

Are you a pharmacy technician or a pharmacist that knows a really awesome tech? We invite you to share your story for publication on this blog! Please submit post ideas to: info@rxtoolkit.com.

Please make a generous donation to the Emily Jerry Foundation.

Tell someone you know about Pharmacy Technician’s University, a portion of proceeds from the sale of these courses is donated to the Emily Jerry Foundation.

For more information about RxTOOLKIT eLEARNING™ please contact elearning@rxtoolkit.com or visit RxTOOLKITeLEARNING.com.

 

Filed Under: Competency, Medication Safety, Personal Stories Tagged With: awareness, medication error, medication safety, patient and provider safety, pharmacy technician, RxTOOLKIT

The Vital Role of Pharmacy Technicians — Chris Jerry, of the Emily Jerry Foundation

November 29, 2018 by admin Leave a Comment

The following post was written by Chris Jerry of the Emily Jerry Foundation. Chris tragically lost his daughter as a result of a preventable medical error made by a pharmacy technician. We are grateful to Chris for his courage in sharing his story as well as for the work he is doing to bring light to this important issue.


Before the loss of my beautiful daughter, Emily, to a tragic preventable medication error in 2006, like most people, I had no knowledge of the vital role that all pharmacy technicians play with respect to safe pharmacy practice. Shortly after Emily’s death, I decided to establish the Emily Jerry Foundation (EJF), in an effort to create awareness about preventable medical errors as well as to be an active part of the overall solution in preventing them.

I reached out to my friend Michael Cohen, from the Institute for Safe Medication Practices (ISMP), to help explain the overall function and responsibilities of a pharmacy technician. Michael imparted some words of wisdom by sharing an analogy that really hit home with me, one that I will never forget.

He said, “Chris, always think of pharmacy technicians as being the “team” and the supervising pharmacists as being the “coaches” in any pharmacy setting.” He went on to say, “What coaches wouldn’t want to have the best trained and most qualified team to ensure a successful and victorious season?” He then explained, that a truly “victorious season” in any pharmacy setting, can be equated to having no medication errors that actually reach a patient receiving care. That simple analogy made sense to me back then and still resonates with me today.

Due to the fact that pharmacy is really the only modality in healthcare that truly works in the background, especially in hospital pharmacy, like most people, I was naturally clueless as to the overall scope of practice that pharmacy technicians have in modern day pharmacy. For example, I had no idea that in virtually every one of our nation’s hospitals, pharmacy technicians have the important responsibility of compounding nearly ALL IV (intravenous) medications, which go directly into patient’s circulatory systems.

In addition, most states have little or no requirements in regards to pharmacy technician training or certification. On the EJF website, we have created an interactive National Pharmacy Technician Initiative and Scorecard, so you can see exactly how your state ranks.

I was absolutely horrified to learn that my little girl had died from a sterile IV compounding error, made on the part of a pharmacy technician, who did not have the proper training or core competency to know the difference between a standard bag of saline with 0.9% sodium chloride, versus hypertonic saline, which has a concentration of 23.4% sodium chloride.

Technically, my daughter tragically died as a result of being overdosed on hypertonic saline.

However, as Emily’s Dad, I feel as though what actually caused her death was a lack of understanding regarding the true importance and vital role that pharmacy technicians play on the clinical “team”, helping to ensure the best and safest possible outcome for each and every patient receiving healthcare.

This is precisely the reason why I feel so strongly that pharmacy technician training is a matter of life and death for all of us! As every single one of us will receive healthcare at some time over the course of our lifetimes.

Above all else, well trained, competent, and reliable pharmacy technicians can drastically reduce any facility’s overall medication error rate. We must fully support technician training and certification, and never ever forget the vital role that technicians play; there are countless lives at stake!

 


For more information about Chris Jerry and the Emily Jerry Foundation please visit: https://emilyjerryfoundation.org/

For more information on Pharmacy Technicians University or to enroll please contact elearning@rxtoolkit.com or visit https://rxtoolkitelearning.com/ptu/

Filed Under: Competency, Medication Safety, Personal Stories Tagged With: awareness, medication error, medication safety, patient and provider safety, pharmacy technician, prevention

Why Tech Training Matters and What’s the Real ROI?

March 28, 2018 by Chuck DiTrapano RPh 2 Comments

My essential core motivation comes from both an intense passion to improve the pharmacy profession and a deliberate intention to make the patients it serves safer.

I believe strongly that true patient safety in medication preparation and administration must include a well‐designed process incorporating innovative and affordable technology utilized by competent staff.

I also believe wholeheartedly that technology can only truly be effective when it is utilized by a competent and engaged caregiver.

I’ve recently noticed a number of trends in the field that have created a void in pharmacy education:

  • Pharmacists are trending toward a more clinical focus
  • Continuous advancements in technology effect the need to stay current
  • Industry developments and CE requirements effect the need to stay current (USP, state license boards, individual practice competency requirements)
  • Operations and dispensing are relying more on technicians and technology
  • Pharmacy technicians are positioned for increased responsibility
  • Pharmacists are positioned for increased liability (as pharmacy technicians assume more responsibility)
  • Recent errors are directly related to pharmacy technician performance:
    • Oregon: Technician prepared wrong drug – women died in ER
    • Indiana: Omnicell stocking error – heparin overdoses 6 babies, 3 NICU babies died
    • Ohio: Technician error in compounding IV solution for Chemo – 2 yr. old Emily Jerry died
    • California – Quaid twins given wrong heparin concentration due to restocking error
  • Pharmacy technician certification is currently not a requirement in the most states but there is a movement towards standardization
  • In most markets, there is currently no accessible or organized pool of certified experienced pharmacy technicians

Pharmacy techs have become an integral part of nearly every segment of every pharmacy in the country. And their responsibilities are growing.

Training and certification can ensure that pharmacy technicians have the core competencies required to safely perform the full scope of practice as well as the right attitude for success.

Most importantly, trained, competent, and reliable techs can drastically reduce any facility’s overall medication error rate.

So what’s the real ROI for tech training?

    • Trained techs are less likely to make errors, costing time and money
    • Trained techs are more likely to be team players critical for departmental success
    • Untrained techs can slow productivity causing delays in treatment or care
    • Untrained techs can lack professional skills or conduct
    • The process of hiring techs can be long, interim staff positions must be covered by others until filled adding stress to existing staff
    • Staff vacancies cost more in overtime paid and are hard to cover especially second and third shifts or holidays
    • It’s extremely hard to find qualified candidates:
      • Difficult to get “true” employment history
      • Hard to identify bad attitudes, laziness, troublemakers, or those with dependency issues before hire
      • A bad hire can cost a great deal of time and money to correct
    • An unprofessional hire can reflect poorly costing the whole department:
      • Techs often work independently and act as the pharmacy representative to other departments in the hospital
    • Techs have no time to waste on anything not vital in the context of doing their job, including education
    • Classroom training is expensive:
      • Pay for training
      • Backfill the staff vacancy on the floor
    • Classroom learning is less effective than competency training that is targeted, relevant, and directly helpful to the job at hand
    • Classroom training is often too broad in focus or happens ahead of time/out of context
      • Reinforcing training with on‐the‐job application and clinical context improves retention, makes them feel effective and capable of doing their jobs well
    • Ensuring training is focused and relevant shortens the training path and amount of hours spent — A shorter training path means fewer hours away from the job
    • Flexible online training that can be accessed any time, in any place, reduces time away from the job even further
    • Online training provides evidence‐based outcomes to measure staff competency and real skill sets more effectively than “seat time”
    • Relevant Integrated Competency training provided on the spot is the most effective way to train your staff

 

RxTOOLKIT eLEARNING™ was developed in direct response to these observations. Our mission is to provide specialized online training with both clinical and operational focus to increase safety, expand competency, boost confidence, and ensure success for all clinicians.

 

RxTOOLKIT eLEARNING™ has recently partnered with TRC Healthcare (Authors of Pharmacist’s Letter and Pharmacy Technician’s Letter in advancement of Pharmacy Technicians University (PTU). This online competency‐based curriculum provides all of the tools and information needed to prepare techs for the job and the national certification exam.

 

RxTOOLKIT eLEARNING™ also provides a Drug Specific Competency Tracking program. This ongoing educational program includes drug specific courses and provides certification and tracking with interactive assignments and competency exams.

 

For more information about RxTOOLKIT eLEARNING™ programs please contact elearning@rxtoolkit.com or visit RxTOOLKITeLEARNING.com.

Filed Under: Competency, Medication Safety Tagged With: awareness, criminal charges, medication error, medication safety, patient and provider safety, pharmacy technician, punitive action for medication errors, RxTOOLKIT

The Evolution of Technology and Human Interaction

October 23, 2015 by Chuck DiTrapano RPh Leave a Comment

I recently had a chance to read the article The Overdose: Harm in a Wired Hospital. If you have the time, it’s worth reading. This article brings up a number of important issues. I wanted to share my thoughts about those issues and the evolution of technology and human interaction in pharmacy.

As technology evolves, the role of the healthcare professional is changing. I am not entirely convinced that all of the changes are for the better. In fact, I believe the interface between humans, technology, and competency is potentially heading in the wrong direction! I base my observation on the following practice tenants:

1.   Assume it’s wrong.

2.   Who’s making the decision?

3.   Make this screen go away!

4.   Can I do this with my eyes closed?

5.   It’s too big to fail?

 

Assume it’s wrong.

As a practicing pharmacist, one of my responsibilities is to enter physicians’ orders into the pharmacy electronic system. As I do this, I ask myself several questions with each order: What was the physician’s intent? Is the drug / dose appropriate? Are there clinical issues with this drug on the patient’s medication profile? Only when I can answer ALL of these questions will I enter the order. By doing so, I have taken ownership of that order.

It’s easy to become complacent and assume that my purpose is to simply enter the order. But there is a big difference between just entering an order and taking ownership of it. I have a colleague who, when training new pharmacists, tells them to always assume the order is incorrect until it can be proven otherwise.

Many times the pharmacist’s approach is to default to the physician’s judgment. This unspoken chain of command was certainly a factor in The Overdose. The author points out, “As is so often the case with medical mistakes, the human inclination to say, “It must be right” can be powerful, especially for someone so low in the organizational hierarchy, for whom a decision to stop the line feels risky.” We may not be naturally inclined to question the physician’s orders, but sometimes it is imperative that we do so.

Additionally, human instinct is generally to look at something in a digital format and assume it’s correct. As the author in The Overdose points out, “humans have a bias toward trusting the computers, often more than they trust other humans, including themselves.” It takes an extra step to take a step back, ask questions, and actually take ownership of the order.

 

Who’s making the decision?

Where are we in healthcare IT today? We need an interface. We need to minimize keystrokes. It needs to be in the cloud. We want computer systems to talk to one another. We want to minimize the human intervention because human intervention leads to errors.

In theory, I agree with all of these statements. But I believe we must ask, “When do we need human intervention?” The fatal error that occurred in The Overdose points directly to this issue. This error was not due to a knowledge deficit in either physician or pharmacist. Both knew what was appropriate for this patient, but they missed the mark. I think the key factor was humans taking a backseat and allowing the IT system to make the decision. Are we comfortable with that?

In an effort to eliminate interface issues, we are gradually pulling healthcare professionals out of the decision making process. What role does it leave for us humans? I am certainly not against technology; in fact I’m all for it! But I am concerned that we are going too far, too fast. Technology should enhance and guide our decisions, provide answers, and make our jobs easier. It should help to educate us and make us better at our jobs. It should not make decisions in spite of us.

At the hospital in The Overdose, “They eliminated the step of the pharmacist checking on the robot, because the idea is you’re paying so much money because it’s so accurate.” We need to ensure that someone is still there to check on the robot. We need to retain human intervention.

 

Make this screen go away!

Anyone working in a modern hospital pharmacy has dealt with the complexity of most IT systems. Often, you know what you want to do, but just can’t get it done. You sometimes find yourself in a maze that seems to have no exit. The medication order you are trying to master becomes secondary to managing the system.

If you have ever taken the subway, you can probably relate. Recently, I traveled to Paris, France. My plan was to take a train from the Paris station to my next destination. I was told to take the Red line train, the A train. I knew the direction I wanted to go and as the train approached the station, I hopped on. All is well.

Not so fast. The Red Line split and headed in two different directions. I was on the wrong Red train.

The analogy I draw with the IT systems is the same. I know what I want to do, I know the train I want to take, but just can’t seem to get there. Take for example, a physician who enters an order for a PEDIATRIC patient, but the drug happens to have an ADULT pathway as well. If the physician chooses the adult pathway, the dose rounding may be different. Adult dose rounding could be to the nearest 10 mg instead of to the nearest 0.1 mg. Same drug, but with a very different outcome. In this situation, the responsibility to catch the error would land squarely on the pharmacist.

As difficult as it is for pharmacists, I think the complexity of IT systems also presents a clear challenge for physicians, especially residents. The true intent of the physician may be misinterpreted just because it was the wrong order set, the wrong panel, or the wrong patient category. That is exactly why, for us pharmacists, I will reiterate tenant #1 – Always assume the order is incorrect until it can be proven otherwise.

 

Can I do this with my eyes closed?

One of the greatest innovations in medication safety has been the introduction of barcode verification for dose preparation, medication dispensing, and dose administration. Barcode verification provides assurance that you have the right drug, in the right form, and in the right dose. It has definitely saved lives. The problem though, is the potential for the caregiver to become disengaged and detached from the process. Instead of reading the label, we just listen for the confirmation beep. When barcode verification becomes a substitute for reading the label, I believe we could actually be increasing the risk of medication error!

In The Overdose, the author points out that, “the nurse trusted something she believed was even more infallible than any of her colleagues: the hospital’s computerized bar-coding system.” This is why it is so important that we retain human engagement in every process.

Additionally, most electronic systems offer no help in identifying when there is actually a problem. There are so many false alerts that most experienced users pay little or no attention to them. Another reason to agree with Sully Sullenberger! To summarize his quote from this article: We need to be capable of independent critical thought and prioritize our warning systems so that important alarms don’t get lost in the shuffle. Check out this blog post including how Sully Sullenberger has also inspired us. We have even utilized that inspiration as a springboard for development at RxTOOLKIT!

 

It’s too big to fail?

As IT systems become more inclusive, it is sometimes impossible to tweak one aspect of the program without affecting another part of the program. Sometimes that second part could include a medication issue. For example, let’s suppose you want to create a tool that nursing can use during a pediatric crisis.  The tool is designed by nursing, programed by a non-healthcare professional, and then published. The tool really doesn’t affect pharmacy, so pharmacy is not consulted. What could go wrong?

In most instances, the medication files in an IT system would be set up using several different drug files: one drug file for adults, one for pediatrics, and one for NICU. If the programmer is unaware that there are three separate drug files and builds the application using only the adult drug file, all of the doses and concentrations could potentially be incorrect. This type of nuance is not always readily apparent to the people building or performing the QA checks on the final product.

It’s easy to see how individual silos within the programming team can lead to bad results simply because, “you don’t know what you don’t know”.

 

Where do we go from here?

So how do we move forward and deal with these issues? Here are my current recommendations:

1. Lower the expectations that your primary IT system can do everything. These systems are fantastic, but like everything else, there are things they do well and things that they don’t.

 2. There must be a balance between the operational process and IT capabilities. If you find yourself striking a disproportionate balance: stop, rethink, and readjust.

3. Don’t build a new process around IT capabilities. We should never expect IT capabilities to supersede operational process. IT solutions should integrate with your established process.

4. Observe how your staff is really using your technology. If you observe that your staff has become disengaged; it’s time to re-train and re-engage.

5. Whenever there is a process or programming change and medications are involved, include pharmacy in the development team. This applies even if the new process was not built for or will not be utilized by pharmacy.

6. Don’t give up on the humans. Knowledgeable users who are engaged in the operational process are absolutely necessary for positive outcomes.

7. Don’t give up on the humans. (This is worth repeating!) There are qualified and conscientious people out there who care about doing the job correctly and accurately. These are the folks you want on your team!

Filed Under: Medication Safety, Pharmacy Technology Tagged With: awareness, barcode scanning, medication error, medication safety, patient and provider safety, pharmacy technology, RxTOOLKIT, working conditions

  • Go to page 1
  • Go to page 2
  • Go to page 3
  • Go to page 4
  • Go to Next Page »

Primary Sidebar

Connect With Us Online

Thanks For Dropping By!

Join the dis­cus­sion by leav­ing com­ments, sub­mit a discussion topic, or share your story for us to print.

PLEASE NOTE:

Posting or commenting on medsafetyonline.org is not a substitute for reporting medication errors through ISMP-MERP.

Let’s Stay In Touch

We promise never to share your address! You will only receive an email when a new post is added.

Recent Posts

  • Are You Ready to Prepare and Administer COVID-19 Vaccines and Therapies?
  • Introducing RxWORKFLOW for Vaccine Safety™
  • Tools to Support Success
  • More Than Just a Pharmacy Technician
  • Reflections on the Future of Infusion Safety

Categories

  • Competency
  • Labeling
  • Medication Safety
  • Personal Stories
  • Pharmacy Law
  • Pharmacy Technology

Footer

The Latest Posts

  • Are You Ready to Prepare and Administer COVID-19 Vaccines and Therapies?
  • Introducing RxWORKFLOW for Vaccine Safety™
  • Tools to Support Success
  • More Than Just a Pharmacy Technician

Connect With Us Online

Looking For Something?

Follow Us On Twitter

My Tweets

Copyright © 2021 medsafetyonline.org All rights reserved. Site design and production DNC.media