Study of Factors Affecting Medical Incident: 2 Powdered Medication Dispensing

Abstract

Medical incidents have been collected, analyzed and built up preventive measures by each medical institution for a long time. For powdered medication, there is the problem that it is difficult to tell at a glance the quantity of the active ingredient in the medication that has been dispensed and the quantities that have been mixed together. Therefore, special prevention measures are considered essential. In this study, we examined the work content of pharmacists’ powdered medication dispensing, using an eye-tracking technology of measuring a human eye movement, and studied on factors that affect medical incident. Participants were five pharmacists with 8 to 26 years of working experience (expert), and five pharmacists with less than one year of working experience (newcomer). Gaze measurement experiments were implemented for powdered medication dispensing during regular work activity. The gaze measurement equipment used was Tobii Pro Glasses 2. Based on the results of the eye tracking, newcomer had a longer dispensing time than expert for all powdered medication dispensing. In particular, it was suggested that there is a close relationship to “years of experience” and “weighing and mixing skills.” Experts did unwasted and efficient movements, when preparing the dispensing apparatus, taking medications from the shelves, and scanning the barcode in the powders dispensing checking system. These movements led to shorter working time in experts. In contrast, newcomer had individual differences at the dispensing. Even with the same pharmacist, the work progression differed depending upon the prescription. Therefore, it is thought that the factor of common error was inadequate check and overlooked. The state that it’s messy on the workplace is also considered highly likely to cause dispensing mistakes. At the weighing, expert started weighing after the inspection of the prescription and checking weighed amount. However, certain newcomer dispensed to depend on the powders dispensing checking system only for the weighing process, without the inspection of the prescription or checking weighed amount. Irregular doses for infants and older patients require fine adjustments; therefore, the powders dispensing checking system may not find all dispensing errors. It is important for a pharmacist to, first, be written calculated weight on the prescription and checked by themselves, and next to begin dispensation work. In the future, as well as the powdered medication dispensing, it is necessary to make use of measures for preventing errors in the various dispensing process, such as the medication inspection, sterile products preparation, clinical practice et al.