Premium
Medication safety incidents in paediatric oncology after electronic medication management system implementation
Author(s) -
Lichtner Valentina,
Baysari Melissa,
Gates Peter,
DallaPozza Luciano,
Westbrook Johanna I.
Publication year - 2019
Publication title -
european journal of cancer care
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.849
H-Index - 67
eISSN - 1365-2354
pISSN - 0961-5423
DOI - 10.1111/ecc.13152
Subject(s) - medicine , workflow , patient safety , incident report , medical emergency , emergency medicine , health care , computer security , database , computer science , economics , economic growth
Objective To explore medication safety issues related to use of an electronic medication management system (EMM) in paediatric oncology practice, through the analysis of patient safety incident reports. Methods We analysed 827 voluntarily reported incidents relating to oncology patients that occurred over an 18‐month period immediately following implementation of an EMM in a paediatric hospital in Australia. We identified medication‐related and EMM‐related incidents and carried out a content analysis to identify patterns. Results We found ~79% ( n = 651) of incidents were medication‐related and, of these, ~45% ( n = 294) were EMM‐related. Medication‐related incidents included issues with: prescribing; dispensing; administration; patient transfers; missing chemotherapy protocols and information on current stage of patient treatment; coordination of chemotherapy administration; handling or storing medications; children or families handling medications. EMM‐related incidents were classified into four groups: technical issues, issues with the user experience, unanticipated problems in EMM workflow, and missing safety features. Conclusions Incidents reflected difficulties with managing therapies rich in interdependencies. EMM, and especially its ‘automaticity’, contributed to these incidents. As EMM impacts on safety in such high‐risk settings, it is essential that users are aware of and attend to EMM automatic behaviours and are equipped to troubleshoot them.