Introduction
The world is changing, and so is the advance in technology; there is a need for more improvement to enable the operations to be much more comfortable in the hospital. Introducing a medication dispensary system has contributed to making inpatient receive proper services at medical facilities. A computerized medication system unit helps the hospital in running daily procedures. The research aims to illustrate inpatient care in factuality, show medication errors in the facilities when one is admitted, and compare the number of errors in a hospital with a dispensary system. At the end of the research, one will learn about a medical dispensary system’s impact on hospitals.
An individual is considered an inpatient by being admitted to the hospital and taken care of by the doctors. The care is set for many severe patients who experience difficulties that need to be observed and treated. The hospital inpatient care unit is one of the facility’s busy sectors since receiving and patient admission. There is an observation by the patient’s doctor in the inpatient care unit, receiving medication, treatment, and handling of emergency cases. There is a difference in being termed as an inpatient. People are confused about being told by the doctor to stay one night for observation as being an inpatient. Due to increased medication errors, implementing a medication dispensary system included curbing the activities such as inventory control and reducing time wastage in looking for medication.
Importance of Computerized Medication Dispensary System (I)
The research shows that the United States loses several inpatients due to improper safety. The importance of being admitted is to improve the patient’s condition. Being impatient is better than receiving medication at home since the doctor can observe one’s need and focus on the proper remedy for the patient to be cured. The dispensing unit has been introduced for appropriate medication arrangements; in this case, the medication dispensary system will reduce drug administration errors by the hospital facilities’ medics. The dispensing unit helps in the storage of medication records of a patient, resulting in good observation in case of an outbreak of a new disease. These computerized machines are widely used in hospitals by nurses and professional practitioners.
Medication dispensary systems have been recommended in health facilities because it is the safest way to improve patient health. Dispensary machines do not doubt that they can enhance the hospital’s medications’ efficiency distributions. The device has a high chance of reducing medical errors resulting from nurses and doctors’ mistakes. The implementation of the dispensing machine was done in 1995. Before the hospitals’ application, most health facilities relied on handwriting notes and records, which are kept for the patients to follow up on their illness cases. The hospital around the university areas in Toronto relied on the use of the traditional medication carts, which are supplied by the sanatorium. The medication cart’s purpose was for patient medical history. The medication’s stock-keeping is kept on shelves, and every 24 hours, there is a floor stock system taking, which the hospital manager does.
There are challenges in managing the stock, such as taking full control of the inventory, incompetent distribution of drugs, etc. The stock-taking process can result in delays in administering doses to the inpatients, and sometimes there is mixed up in drug distribution. The dispensing machine saves time by presenting adequate security and full control of the medical inventory; furthermore, they share well-acknowledged medication’s safekeeping in the hospitals.
Characteristics of the Automated Dispensing System
The medication dispensing system keeps a good record of medications, and they have the electronic tracking of the right medicine to be given to each inpatient. The dispensing helps manage stocks in a health facility since, without them, the process would take time, resulting in a crisis in managing the inventories and balancing them. Report of the Toronto case on missing stock and inaccurate administration of wrong drugs was due to a lack of a proper medication dispensing system in the hospital.
The dispensing machines have archived goals of maximizing patients’ safety through proper care and timely medications. The dispensing machines can property monitor the administering of drugs on patience and trucks down the patient’s pattern (PBMC Health, 2017). The process is proved by an example of administering an injection that reduces bleeding. The infusion is costly, and there is a restriction on its administering since after one is injected with it, it reduced the chances of blood transfusion during surgery.
The dispensing machine facilitates the timely dose administrations and helps one differentiate the medications since they can easily mix up. The dispensing units help the nurses be convenient, enhancing their smooth operations. The dispensing machine helps in eliminating unused/ unwanted doses. The elimination will decrease the rate of improper administration errors, resulting from the availability of quantities that are more than the one needed to be dispensed and available to administer.
Their particular medication needs proper monitoring due to its administration process. Margaret hospital is specialized in oncology, and medications such as analgesics and antiemetics are prescribed as per the need of an individual. The hospital is an example of the need to have an automated dispensing system to help manage the administration’s routine to be done correctly. Such therapy is essential to an inpatient to archive symptom control. The dispensing machine is reducing pharmacy inventory workload. The automated dispensing device is excellent in keeping the inventory and timely dispensing as it satisfies pharmacists management. In this technology era, the dispensing machines have been of great help and have met proper medication distribution system requirements.
Factors that have Led to an Increase in the Chance of a Medication Error (O)
In medical history, many factors can result in the likelihood of errors in administering medication. The research shows that few mistakes can result in medication errors in an inpatient with an automated medication system; these are sleepy deprivation, some risky behaviours by the medical facilities, staff’s issues, unprepared training by a health worker, and environmental issues.
Health Workers Risky Behaviors
Medical errors can happen due to some actions, which are termed to be risky behaviours; this action can compromise patient safety. Some nurses are incompetent, resulting in the poor administering of wrong medicine to an inpatient. The incompetence act can put a victim into a risky situation. These behaviours are mostly a result of the rush to save time, comfort, and convenience.
The behaviour between health workers can be influence inpatient care in different ways. This behaviour in health care facilities is the” grab and go” methods that happen when one does not save time reading the label of the medication; the ignorance act by the medics can result in the poor administering of dosage to an inpatient—the reluctance to ask for help if one is stuck on identifying the proper dosage. Lastly, improper communication between patients and health workers to be notified if one has allergies and other diagnosis issues is a major issue affecting healthcare facilities.
There are other behaviours such as competition between medics in the hospital to earn a work promotion. The action can result in the rage between the two doctors, which can compromise the ability to work well. Such behaviour has affected the medics to work and give the inpatient the best care and safety.
Sleep Deprivation and Understaffing
Understaffing has been a problem in the hospitals since it has resulted from the health works putting victims in a hazardous situation. The research shows that the higher the number of nurses in the hospital can lead to proper budgeting, leading to understaffing in the facility. The research shows that there are low chances of patient deaths in the intensive care unit in hospital facilities where there are many nurses. The stuffing ratio has been proposed to have a higher proportion in hospitals. The law was passed in 2004 by the California law court, and research indicates that in the United States, the health care facility with a 25% has a lower number of nurses (Kronick, 2016).The ratio will help the hospital overcome the chances of being penalized by the ACA rule. The rule is set to cover the patient’s and the nurses’ interests.
Kronick (2016) argues that sleep deprivation had been a significant issue among health workers; this results from stuffing and medics working overtime and unable to get enough sleep for themselves. Sleep deprivation can be an issue on its own, resulting in medication errors. Lack of enough sleep can affect one’s moods and think straight since they experience irritability during working hours. Working in a condition that is not stable can result in wrongly picking medicine for an inpatient. Health worker encounter such issues due to the hospital managements change work schedule and some problems with extending work shifts.
Environmental Issues
The medics’ working environment is another issue that can result in medication errors. The research shows that environmental conditions can influence healthcare workers’ changes. Examples of specific settings are the arrangements and labeling of medication cans. This situation can result in poor choice in picking prescriptions from the shelves, resulting in a delay in inpatient giving. Some of the medicines are packaged using a similar label, and if one is not careful in selecting them, this can result in medication errors. The storage condition can also influence medication error since a nurse would find it challenging to locate a dose, resulting in a delay in supplying the dosage to patients. The poor placement of medication shelves can make it hard for the medics to reach out to prescribed dosage.
The inpatients in a facility with a computerized medical facility are likely to have fewer chances of encountering the medical error. The reason is behind this is the excellent monitory of all medication and the administration of a timely dose to the inpatient. The medics in the hospital have more time to work, rather than engage in extra activities of planning and arranging inpatient daily dose. The institutions with the computerized dispensing machine are likely to have small numbers of errors because they control the health workers. It is not easy for one to encounter such an incidence unless one discusses factors present during dose administration.
Compare Inpatients at a Facility with Computerized Medication Systems and the Number of Errors (C)
The inpatients in the hospital facility have fewer chances of staying in the facility because the medical procedure will be timely, and the process of administration will be quick. Kronick (2016) argues that the number of errors in a hospital with a computerized system will likely have fewer chances of medical errors. The medics have more time to talk with the inpatients. They will note the inpatients with allergies and other related diseases when administering the medication.
Dispensing machines have changed the hospital procedure and make the operation easier. Since the implementation, the United States has reported that the number of errors has risen to 15% (Kronick, 2016). Patient unit care of Pennsylvania has said that only 0.5% of the mistakes has been counted from the dispensary machines (Kronick, 2016).. The researchers are working on improvising measures to follow the operation. A proper follow-up of the actions will ensure that the dispensing apparatus does not cause any more errors.
Conclusion
In conclusion, the dispensing machines have met our requirements in this era of technology, and hospital operations are running smoothly. Few medication errors are being reported from the automated dispensary machine; however, the researchers are working on improving this system to make sure there is perfect operation in hospitals. The dispensing machine has reduced pharmacists’ working time, making sure that patient safety is prioritized by setting up automatic dispensing machines.
References
PBMC Health. (2017). The difference between inpatient and outpatient care. Peconic Bay Medical Center (PBMC). Web.
Kronick, R. (2016). AHRQ’s role in improving quality, safety, and health system performance. Public Health Reports, 131(2), 229-232. Web.