Safely automating the medication use process. Not as easy as it looks

The medication use process is one of the most complex and risky clinical care processes in the hospital. It involves a large number of caregivers in widely diverse areas: physicians, nurses, pharmacists and respiratory therapists. Studies performed over the past several years have shown that medication errors and adverse events occur in all parts of the medication use process. Technologies are available to improve medication safety across the entire medication use process, but implementation can be expensive, intrusive and complex. To gain the benefits from various technologies, organizations must consider how the interplay between these technologies affects the workflow and how best to implement these technologies. Our approach for planning for these implementations--along with a suggested sequence--will be discussed in this article.