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Medication Prescribing, Surveillance and Safety in Australasian Emergency Departments
Author(s) -
Marmor Gerrard O,
Braitberg George,
Nicolas Caroline M
Publication year - 2011
Publication title -
journal of pharmacy practice and research
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.222
H-Index - 22
eISSN - 2055-2335
pISSN - 1445-937X
DOI - 10.1002/j.2055-2335.2011.tb00676.x
Subject(s) - medicine , psychological intervention , emergency department , patient safety , family medicine , medical emergency , pharmacist , electronic prescribing , emergency medicine , pharmacy , nursing , health care , economics , economic growth
Background The prescribing practices of the Fellows of the Australasian College of Emergency Medicine (FACEM) in Australasian emergency departments (EDs) are unknown. Aim To describe the FACEM's prescribing practices in relation to charting and monitoring medications in the ED; and to investigate the differences in the prescribing practices between the users and non‐users of the National Inpatient Medication Chart (NIMC) in EDs. Method Analysis of a multimodal survey sent to FACEM across Australasia. Results Responses were received from 122 (n = 940) FACEM (13% response rate). 91% of FACEM considered medication safety to be a quality issue. Most FACEM (56%) prescribed on 2 to 3 different documents in the ED and only 39 (32%) prescribed on 1 document. Time pressure was the main barrier to safe prescribing in the ED. Prescribing guidelines for analgesics and antibiotics were often in situ but times to administration were not monitored. 65% of FACEM who used the NIMC tended to prescribe on only 1 document and came from larger EDs that employed an ED pharmacist. Strategies cited to decrease the rate of prescribing errors included educational interventions, ED pharmacists and use of the NIMC. Conclusion There are a wide range of prescribing and medication safety practices and a lack of conformity among Australian emergency physicians. Despite the introduction of the NIMC, most FACEM prescribed on multiple documents in the ED. The differences between users and non‐users of the NIMC identified may aid future initiatives to increase its use.