Learn how to stay compliant with the new requirement for improving the safety of medication use
Accreditation Connection, September 17, 2004
The requirement for Goal #c is established to improve the safety of medication use. The JCAHO expects organizations to identify, and at a minimum, annually review a list of look-alike/sound-alike drugs and to take action to prevent errors involving the interchange of these drugs. Here are a couple of good compliance tips from a couple of experts:
Create a list of look-alike/sound-alike drugs used in your organization and prioritize them according to risk and volume. If you don't make this list, you can't move forward on this goal, says Brenda Gail Summers, MBA/MHA, MSN, RN, CNAA, senior consultant with the Marblehead, MA-based consulting firm, The Greeley Company, a division of HCPro. Review the list at least annually for high-risk/high-alert medications because hospital formularies are always adding or removing medications. This means a hospital has to determine effective strategies for storing, preparing, ordering, dispensing, and administering look-alike/sound-alike drugs.
Work with product supply and material management groups, says Paula Swain MSN, CPHQ, FNAHQ, director of clinical and regulatory review at Presbyterian Healthcare in Charlotte, NC, and keep an eye on the Institute for Safe Medication Practices (ISMP) Web site, www.ismp.org, a resource that updates a list of look-alike/sound-alike drugs and offers tips to help pharmacists comply with this goal.
Related Products
-
Briefings on The Joint Commission
Briefings on The Joint Commission will help you with all of your accreditation and survey preparation needs. Every month...
-
The Joint Commission Mock Tracer Made Simple
This updated edition of our annual best-seller includes new tools and case studies of successful tracers from facilities...
-
Staffing Effectiveness Data:
You've spent an enormous amount of time, money, and effort collecting staffing effectiveness data - and you can still put it...
-
Simplifying Nursing Documentation
Implement a "two-form" solution that will cut nursing documentation in half while fully complying with Joint Commission...
Most Popular
- Articles
-
- HIPAA Q&A: Level of encryption needed for email
- HIPAA Q&A: TPO disclosures to a business associate
- Q&A: Acute respiratory failure diagnosis does not require intubation
- Featured blog post: Nurses face felony charges after reporting physician to the Texas Medical Board
- Q/A: Coding infusions to correct low potassium levels
- What does case-mix index mean to you?
- Capturing all necessary codes for IUD insertion and removal can be challenging
- Topic: CMS, OESS post new security compliance review information, checklist
- News and briefs: Oklahoma Osteopathic Association against residency bill change
- OB services: Coding inside and outside of the package
- E-mailed
-
- HIPAA Q&A: Level of encryption needed for email
- Featured blog post: Nurses face felony charges after reporting physician to the Texas Medical Board
- Q&A: Acute respiratory failure diagnosis does not require intubation
- Q/A: Coding infusions to correct low potassium levels
- Oxygen Cylinder Storage Requirements
- CMS has reformulated payments for some bilateral procedures
- Q/A: New code for image-guided minimally invasive lumbar decompression
- Understand the spine to code back procedures correctly
- Cut through the confusion related to different kinds of wound debridements
- Cohesive History and Physical Requirements
- Searched