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Updated: Feb 15, 2026

A Novel Approach for the Administration of Medications and Fluids in Emergency Scenarios and Settings
Published on: November 9, 2016
Using Time-Referenced Data to Assess Medication Administration Performance and Quality
John M Welton1, Catherine Kleiner, Carolyn Valdez
1Author Affiliations: Professor and Senior Scientist (Dr Welton), Health Systems Research, University of Colorado College of Nursing, Aurora; Research Scientist, Nursing Outcomes, Research, and EBP (Dr Kleiner), Biostatistician, Department of Patient Safety and Quality (Ms Valdez), Professional Development Specialist, Nursing Education, Research, and AHA (Ms Richardson), and Chief Nursing Officer (Dr Boyle), Denver Health, Colorado; Research Assistant and Graduate Student (Mr Lucas), MPH Program, University of Colorado School of Public Health, Aurora.
Objective:
This study tests the feasibility of using a large (big) clinical data set to test the ability to extract time-referenced data related to medication administration to identify late doses and as-needed (PRN) administration patterns by RNs in an inpatient setting.
Methods:
The study is a secondary analysis of a set of data using bar-code medication administration time stamps (n = 3043812) for 50883 patients admitted to a single, urban, 525-bed hospital in 11 inpatient units by 714 nurses between April 1, 2013, and March 31, 2015.
Results:
The large majority of scheduled medications (43.3%) were administered between 9 to 10 AM and 9 to 10 PM accounting for the most amount of delayed doses. On average, patients received 8.9 medications per day, and nurses administered 19.7 medications per shift. The average full-time nurse administered 3414 medications per year.
Conclusions:
The findings support use of time-referenced data to identify clinical processes and performance in administering scheduled and PRN medications.
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