Facilitating medication incident analysis through computerization

A computer program to facilitate medication incident analysis is described. This program was developed to provide the hospital's Medication Quality Assurance Committee with more meaningful data on medication incidents in an easily accessible database as well as enhanced data storage. The menu-driven program was developed on an Olivetti M-24 SP microcomputer using Lotus 1-2-3 and Harvard Business Graphics software. The structured format of the database contains specific information from each individual medication incident report. On a monthly basis, macro commands are used to extract criteria-based data from the database and present this information in a tabular format. In addition, annual data tables are complied to provide year-to-date data summaries. The database and tables are copied and stored on a computer diskette each month. This computer program has provided the Medication Quality Assurance Committee with an improved system for medication incident data analysis. The major benefit of this computer program over the previous manual system is the more timely identification of medication-related practices requiring closer monitoring and/or revision to improve patient care.