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ADR hotlines help hospitals with compliance

Nurse Manager Weekly, February 21, 2003

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Reporting adverse drug reactions to a hotline helps you to meet regulatory requirements, such as Medicare's Conditions of Participation, and the medication standards of the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations (JCAHO), such as TX.3.9, which requires organizations to monitor medication effects on patients.

You may have such a system in place, but a successful hotline requires administrators to actively promote the line and to continue to work with staff to encourage reporting, says Ben Muoghalu, PharmD, director of pharmacy at St. Joseph Medical Center in Joliet, IL.

At his facility, doctors, nurses, and allied health professionals shied away from filling out the paper forms placed on each floor with which to report adverse drug reactions (ADRs). The paper system brought in only 10 reports on average per month, says Muoghalu.

He has since created a special hotline for his facilities to help encourage reporting. He instituted an ADR hotline, and says that the line, now in its second year, has exceeded expectations in its success. "Once we went with the telephone system, we" started averaging 50 reports a month, Muoghalu says. When callers access St. Joseph's line, they hear the following:

"You've reached the ADR hotline. If you suspect an adverse drug reaction has occurred, please leave the following information:

• The name of the patient
• The patient's room number
• The date of the suspected adverse drug reaction
• A description of the reaction
• The suspected drug
• Any therapy that was required
• Your name and an extension where you may be reached in case we have questions (optional)"

Muoghalu involved staff early on in the ADR hotline's creation by holding several inservices to make sure employees understood that leaving their name on the voice mail was optional.

With the paper system, staff members often worried they would be identified and face punitive measures. The hotline allows for anonymity, however. Muoghalu hoped that this distinction from the old paper method would help staff to feel more comfortable reporting ADRs, and it did.

The costs involved in setting up the line were minimal, requiring only the time and labor of one of the facility's telecommunications technicians. Increased reporting of ADRs has also lead to improvements in both patient safety and staff education, he says.

Adapted from: Hospital Pharmacy Regulation Report, www.hcmarketplace.com/Prod.cfm?id=1505&S=ENMW.

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