Sharp Reduction in Medication Administration Errors

Our Lady of the Lake hospital was looking for ways to better serve patients and set out to overhaul their medical informatics system and protocols. Halverson Group was engaged to analyze the medication administration loop (doctor-pharmacist-nurse) as part of an overall effort to reduce medical errors. Approaching the hospital as a patient care service system, we examined staffing, protocols, SOPs, training and technology, among other things. What we uncovered was that errors were often the result of illegible prescriptions—a problem easily solved by implementing the prescription module in the newly adopted medical ERP. So at the point of delivery, we designed a barcode scanning procedure and incorporated a new protocol into the training program to ensure correct medication delivery. A number of other recommendations including changes to staffing, scheduling and training lead to a significant reduction in medication administration errors and the hospital being recognized by the state board of health for its efforts.