EPERCAS Study. Strategies for Preventing Medication Administration Errors in Nursing Homes.

Abstract

Medication administration errors are one of the most frequent types of errors. There are different safety guides and recommendations to prevent medication errors (MEs) generally directed to the hospital environment. However, specific recommendations for the management process in the residential care environment are lacking. The main objective of this study was to develop a list of recommendations to aid in preventing the most important MEs that occur during the administration process in Nursing Homes (NH), such as not administering doses or administering medication to the wrong patient. The effectiveness and feasibility of the strategies proposed were evaluated by a panel of experts. The conventional Delphi method was applied. The first round in our study was a face-to-face questionnaire; the second round included an online questionnaire based on the results of the first round. Finally, eight strategies were included in the EPERCAS List: one professional in charge per shift; one professional commissioned by the residential unit; avoid interruptions; avoid medication outside of meal times; personalized medication drawer for each resident including oral medication from a bag and laxatives, inhalers, syrups, eye drops…; identification of the resident and their medication; visual check that everything has been administered; signature to verify medication administration. The great continual challenge for NH is to define safe and affordable procedures. Minimum safety recommendations for administering the medications, such as those included in this study, should be employed. Our next stage is to implement these strategies in one of our NH and subsequently, evaluate its effectiveness and consider expanding it to the rest of the NH.