Hila Yariv
Reuth Rehabilitation Hospital, Sackler Faculty of Medicine-Tel Aviv University, Israel
Scientific Tracks Abstracts: Arch Cancer Res
Introduction: The importance of correcting medication errors at hospital admission is paramount for promoting an error free delivery and continuity of care. Recently stakeholders have paid considerable attention to patient safety in acute-care hospitals but less is known about discrepancies and medication errors during patients` admission in other health care settings such as post-acute care providers. An increased understanding of errors that occur in rehabilitation hospitals, would better equip stakeholders in taking actions to improve the safety of patient care in this unique setting.
Aims: The primary aim of the current study is to study pharmacist role in identifying and preventing an unintended medication discrepancies at the time of their hospital admission. The secondary objective is to study the source of error, type of discrepancy and class of medicine most frequently implicated during the transition of care from acute to rehabilitation hospital.
Methods: The researcher performed a retrospective investigation and study of 356 patients with 3071 prescription medications referred from an acute hospital. The inclusion criteria also include ventilated patients over the age of 18 who received more than five prescription only medicines.
Results: Unexplained errors which resulted in a physician changes affected 154 patients, 43%, of the total number of the study participants. The findings showed that the most common cause of error found during the reconciliation of medicines at the point of admission is the use of patients own medications in the process.
Conclusions: Pharmacist plays an important role in determining discrepancies and medication errors during patients` admission. This study provides an insight to the discrepancies that occur in this unique setting. Stakeholders may wish to adopt the recommendations provided by the author and act in order to better patients' safety in rehabilitation hospitals. Some of the recommendations are also applicable to other health care settings.
Hila Yariv has completed her PhD from The PoznaÃ?Â? University of Economics and Business and her Master`s in Pharmacy at The Robert Gordon University, Aberdeen. She has vast experience in working in many different health care settings with large numbers of pharmaceuticals and medical technologies. Her passion is for medical innovations that transform people`s lives and prevent and cure diseases. Today, she is the Chief Pharmacist at The Reuth Rehabilitation Hospital in Israel and serves as The Head of the Drug and New Technologies Committee. She has published papers in reputed journals and has been teaching since 2002 in international settings ranging from higher education to various industries.
E-mail: Hila.yariv@reuth.org.il
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