Improving Medication Safety in an ICU

Reported medication errors in an ICU at an academic teaching hospital raised concerns about adherence to safety protocols, including barcode scanning before medication administration. A group of nurse leaders, bedside nurses, and pharmacists formed a medication safety task force to increase compliance with barcode scanning and reduce reported medication errors in which failure to scan was a contributing factor.Three task force members observed nurses' workflow in ICU medication administration. The members observed three nurses administer medications before scanning the barcode and three other nurses scan medications in a location where they were unable to see alerts on the computer. After the observations, the task force implemented three interventions: medication tables to provide a surface in front of the computer where medications could be placed when scanning; standardized workflow; and nursing staff education. Task force members then conducted postimplementation observations to evaluate improvement in barcode scanning compliance.In the postintervention observations, all medications were scanned in front of the computer before administration, an increase of 27.3 percentage points (from 72.7% preintervention) in the barcode scanning compliance rate. The ICU also went 17 months in the postintervention period without a reported medication administration error in which failure to scan was a contributing factor.The task force's observation of medication administration led to interventions that made it easier for nurses to adhere to best practice. Medication tables were a simple, sustainable intervention that used human factors principles to increase barcode scanning compliance.