Reducing Interruptions and Reducing Errors in the Inpatient Dispensary Pharmacy

Interruptions and distractions are significant factors in medication errors in the pharmacy environment. Although only a small percentage of these errors cause harm, medication errors need to be minimised in an effort to improve patient safety. In an attempt to reduce the number of interruptions, the inpatient pharmacy at Auckland District Health Board plans to implement an information system to provide an online status of prescription progress during the dispensing process. This prescription tracking system will allow pharmacy staff to enter the status of a prescription and update it as it moves along the dispensing process. The objective of implementing this system is to provide a shared tool for pharmacy and nurses to allow visibility of the status of a prescription at any point during the dispensing process. The secondary objectives of the implementation include improving patient care by reducing medication errors and using nursing and pharmacy staff time more productively.