A new study could help gather valuable information about medication errors, thanks to the American College of Clinical Pharmacy (ACCP).
The pilot study, presented at the ACCP’s annual meeting, displayed information on pharmacy medication errors gathered from several pharmacists in various clinical practice settings across the country.
The results are due to the initiative of the Practice-Based Research Network, a program adopted by the ACCP Research Institute last year. Pharmacies elect to be members of the reporting program, allowing the ACCP to gather data faster than other national information sources. With over 700 member pharmacists, the ACCP can now conduct large-scale investigations into clinical pharmacy practice.
The first study discovered that 779 medication errors occurred over a 14-day period in 2010, with over 70 PBRN pharmacists reporting across inpatient and outpatient settings. The study, called MEDAP, or Medication Error Detection, Amelioration and Prevention, also found that 61% of errors occurred in inpatient care settings, while 39% occurred in outpatient settings (including clinics and patient homes).
The investigation was not just a new way to track errors. Grace M. Kuo, PharmD, MPH, PhD, the study’s lead author, said the objective was to find new strategies to prevent medication mistakes from happening in the first place.
“The advantage in having a practice-based network is that together, we have a large sample size,” Dr. Kuo said. Additionally, “we are able to complete a large study in very quick turnaround time. Imagine this: If I study 100 patients in two months here in San Diego and 10 other pharmacists around the country do the same, then together we will have more than a thousand patients.”
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