Improving Delivery Times for Inpatient Meds
- Posting laminated cards at med stations of commonly used drugs and where these are regulary stored
- Delivering drugs 15 minutes prior to adminstration to allow time to be prepared
- Color-coding bins of new meds to distinguish from a patient’s discontinued meds
What can your team do to plan ahead and prepare in advance to anticipate patient needs?
Delivering medications late is not good for the patient or the hospital. And inpatient pharmacies have a tough job to keep up with demand. Since the pharmacy is responsible for medication management, a team in Redwood City worked with the medical-surgical team to help streamline this process. They posted laminated cards of commonly used drugs, made early deliveries to ensure timely preparation for the patient, and regularly updated nurses’ phone numbers. In a two-year span, the team was able to reduce their overdue medications from 26 percent to 13 percent.
Timely delivery of medications helps the entire hospital from clinician to staff to patient. Use laminated cards for commonly used drugs and update phone numbers to facilitate the process.
The Redwood City pharmacy team worked with other hospital departments to help improve delivery times for inpatient medications. Pictured left to right are: Inpatient Phamacy Tech Hirem Patel, UHW-SEIU; Inpatient Pharmacy Supervisor Jake Jung; Inpatient Pharmacy Supervisor Tedd Kimelman and Inpatient Pharmacy Tech Michael Martinez, UHW-SEIU.
drop in percentage points for overdue medications