Consultant evaluation of a hospital medication system: Analysis of the existing system

Literature review of interprofessional research on inpatient pharmacy operations

“…The following year, Mitchell 48 published research that addressed similar issues to those mentioned by Barker et al, [45][46][47] though smaller in scope and couched in terms of waste reduction. Through a series of improvements to the medication-use process, including (but not limited to) distributing medication from satellite pharmacies, modifying the times at which batches are printed, and increasing the number of daily batch preparations from one to two, Mitchell found a 27.5% reduction in i.v.…”

“…In an attempt to address reliability and response times in Sinai Hospital of Detroit's medication system, Barker et al [45][46][47] published a sequence of three articles. At the outset, the average time to process a new order at Detroit's Sinai Hospital was just over two hours, and 36% of that time was identified as non-value-added time.…”

“…More than 20 years after Barker et al's [45][46][47] work, Intrevado et al 52 refined and extended the notion of value-added time and its implications in inpatient pharmacy operations via simulation. Noting that the inpatient pharmacy has considerable control over the timing of the preparation of batched i.v.…”

Can simulation be used to reduce errors in health care delivery? The hospital drug distribution system

“…Many attempts have been made to reduce error rates, but not all have been successful. [11][12][13][14][15][16] These limitations suggest that an alternative approach to the study of medication administration errors is required. One option is to use simulation modelling, an approach often used in other elds 17,18 and now considered a powerful tool for health care decision-making.…”

The role of communication in paediatric drug safety

“…[4][5][6][7] The complex series of interactions between patients and healthcare professionals that lead to drugs reaching the patient have been described as the ''medication system''. 8 In the literature on both adult and paediatric drug safety, there has been considerable focus on various important aspects of this system, both cataloguing errors and suggesting preventive strategies. The prescribing process and the use of information technology to reduce such errors have been the focus of much research attention.…”