[Translated article] Evaluation of the safety of medication-use systems in hospital emergency services

The objective of this study was to assess the implementation of safe medication practices in hospital emergency services, in order to understand the points of greatest risk as well as the safety challenges faced by these departments, and to plan collaboratively improvement initiatives.

Multicentric and descriptive study based on completion of the "Medication safety self-assessment of emergency services" from May 16, 2023 to November 16, 2023, at voluntarily participating emergency services. The survey contained 93 items grouped into 10 key elements. Mean score and mean percentages based on the maximum possible values for the overall survey, for the key elements and for each individual item of evaluation, were determined.

A total of 72 emergency services completed the questionnaire. The mean score obtained for the overall questionnaire was 428.3 points (51.1% of the maximum score). Results showed a large variation among the scores of the participating services (range: 164.0-620.5). Four key elements had values below 50%, corresponding to competence and training of professionals in safety practices (38.4%); incorporation of pharmacists in emergency departments (42.1%), availability and accessibility of information about patients (43.1%), and patient education (48.1%). The highest values corresponded to labeling, packaging, and naming of medications (69.2%) and communication of prescriptions and other medication information (64%). No differences were found between emergency departments in the key elements according to the dependency or size of the hospital, or the type of department, except for the item referring to the incorporation of pharmacists in the emergency service, where differences were observed between hospitals with less than 200 beds (28.9%) and those with more than 500 (52.2%).

The application of the specific self-assessment questionnaire has made it possible to identify safety practices that are insufficiently implemented into emergency departments in our country and to identify critical points for improvement for which planning collaborative initiatives to reduce medication errors in these units should become a priority.