The PSNet Collection: All Content

The AHRQ PSNet Collection comprises an extensive selection of resources relevant to the patient safety community. These resources come in a variety of formats, including literature, research, tools, and Web sites. Resources are identified using the National Library of Medicine’s Medline database, various news and content aggregators, and the expertise of the AHRQ PSNet editorial and technical teams.

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Displaying 1 - 20 of 230 Results

Pharmacy e-prescription dispensing before and after CancelRx implementation.

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Pitts SI, Olson S, Yanek LR, et al. JAMA Intern Med. 2023;Epub Sep 5.

Previous research has found that CancelRx can improve communication between electronic health record (EHR) systems and pharmacy dispensing systems and increase successful medication discontinuation. This interrupted time series analysis assessed the impact of CancelRx implementation on successful discontinuation of medications e-prescribed in ambulatory healthcare settings. After CancelRx implementation, the proportion of e-prescriptions sold after discontinuation in the EHR decreased from 8.0% to 1.4%.

California pharmacies are making millions of mistakes. They’re fighting to keep that secret.

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Peterson M. Los Angeles Times. September 5, 2023.

Safe practice in community pharmacy is challenged by production pressure, workforce shortages, and multitasking. This story examined the mistakes made at major retail pharmacy chains in California. It provides examples perpetrated across the industry to target universal areas of needed improvement and potential strategies to address them.

Personal Health Literacy

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Patient Safety Primer August 30, 2023

Anyone can find it challenging to understand medical terms, and millions of Americans have trouble understanding and acting upon health information. The mismatch between individuals' health literacy skills and the complexity of health information and health care tasks involved in managing health has implications on patient safety.

Drug shortages.

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Aronson JK, Heneghan C, Ferner RE. Br J Clin Pharmacol. Epub 2023 Jul 16.

Addressing drug shortages is a patient safety priority. Part One of this review summarizes existing definitions for drug shortages and the harms that can occur due to drug shortages (e.g., medication errors, treatment delays, undertreatment). Part Two discusses trends in drug shortages, the causes of drug shortages, and potential solutions.

The state of health, burnout, healthy behaviors, workplace wellness support, and concerns of medication errors in pharmacists during the COVID-19 pandemic.

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Melnyk BM, Hsieh AP, Tan A, et al. J Occup Environ Med. 2023;65:699-705.

Many healthcare professionals experienced adverse emotional and psychological outcomes during the COVID-19 pandemic. This survey of 665 health system pharmacists found that pharmacists working in settings with higher levels of workplace wellness support were less likely to experience depression, anxiety, or burnout, and report higher levels of professional quality of life during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Status of patient safety culture in community pharmacy settings: a systematic review.

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Kwon K-E, Nam DR, Lee M-S, et al. J Patient Saf. 2023;19:353-361.

Community pharmacists are perhaps the last line of defense in preventing medication errors in the outpatient setting; therefore, ensuring a strong safety culture is critical. This review identified 11 studies reporting on safety culture using the AHRQ Community Pharmacy Survey on Patient Safety Culture. Pharmacists and pharmacy staff rated overall patient safety highly, but more than half identified workload as a concern.

Risk Evaluation and Mitigation Strategy (REMS) Programs and Medication Safety: Parts I and II.

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ISMP Medication Safety Alert! Acute care edition. July 13, 2023;(4):1-3;July 27, 2023;(5):1-5.

Risk Evaluation and Mitigation Strategy (REMS) programs help to ensure the safe use of distinct medications through communication, patient information, and implementation support. Part I of this article series examines systemic barriers to the deployment of REMS as a strategy to decrease potential for drug-related harm and medication error. Part II looks at the processes that one health system used to implement REMS.

Understanding the medication safety challenges for patients with mental illness in primary care: a scoping review.

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Ayre MJ, Lewis PJ, Keers RN. BMC Psychiatry. 2023;23:417.

Medication safety in inpatient and outpatient settings is a major focus of patient safety efforts. This review included 79 studies on epidemiology, etiology, or interventions related to psychiatric medication safety in primary care (e.g., general practice, community pharmacy, long-term care). Most studies focused on older adults and potentially inappropriate prescribing. The authors recommend future research on wider age groups and underrepresented mental health diagnosis, such as attention deficient hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).

Using sociotechnical theory to understand medication safety work in primary care and prescribers' use of clinical decision support: a qualitative study.

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Jeffries M, Salema N-E, Laing L, et al. BMJ Open. 2023;13:e068798.

Clinical decision support (CDS) systems were developed to support safe medication ordering, alerting prescribers to potential unsafe interactions such as drug-drug, drug-allergy, and dosing errors. This study uses a sociotechnical framework to understand the relationship between primary care prescribers’ safety work and CDS. Prescribers described the usefulness of CDS but also noted alert fatigue.

The impact of language barriers on patient care: a pharmacy perspective.

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Patel J. PM Healthcare Journal. Spring 2023(4):5-18.

Language discordance is known to degrade medication safety. The article discusses an examination of English pharmacists’ reactions and responses to language barriers with patients. The results highlight the need for improved training and support for pharmacists to effectively dispense medications and counsel patients with whom they don’t share a common language.

Perceived discrimination in the community pharmacy: a cross-sectional, national survey of adults.

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Baffoe JO, Moczygemba LR, Brown CM. J Am Pharm Assoc (2003). 2023;63:518-528.

Minoritized and vulnerable people often experience delays in care due to systemic biases. This survey study examined the association between perceived discrimination at community pharmacies and foregoing or delaying picking up medications. Participants reported discrimination based on race, age, sexual orientation, ethnicity, income, and prescription insurance; those participants were more likely to delay picking up their medications. There was no association with discrimination and foregoing medications.

ISMP Targeted Medication Safety Best Practices for Community Pharmacy.

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Horsham, PA; Institute for Safe Medication Practices: April 2023.

Community pharmacies are common providers of medication delivery that harbor process weaknesses affecting safety. This guidance shares evidence-based steps to address problems such as wrong patient errors and lack of consistent barcode system use in the community setting.

Creating a stronger culture of safety within US community pharmacies.

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Lewis NJW, Marwitz KK, Gaither CA, et al. Jt Comm J Qual Patient Saf. 2023;49:280-284.

Community pharmacies face unique challenges in ensuring patient safety. This commentary summarizes research on prescribing errors in community pharmacies and how a culture of safety in community pharmacies can drive improvements in prescribing safety.

Technology as a Tool for Improving Patient Safety

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Perspective on Safety March 29, 2023

In the past several decades, technological advances have opened new possibilities for improving patient safety. Using technology to digitize healthcare processes has the potential to increase standardization and efficiency of clinical workflows and to reduce errors and cost across all healthcare settings.¹ However, if technological approaches are designed or implemented poorly, the burden on clinicians can increase. For example, overburdened clinicians can experience alert fatigue and fail to respond to notifications. This can lead to more medical errors.

Duplicate Therapies in Retail Pharmacy

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WebM&M Case March 15, 2023

The cases described in this WebM&M reflect fragmented care with lapses in coordination and communication as well as failure to appropriately address medication discrepancies. These two cases involve duplicate therapy errors, which have the potential to cause serious adverse drug events.

Medication errors in community pharmacies: evaluation of a standardized safety program.

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Ledlie S, Gomes T, Dolovich L, et al. Explor Res Clin Soc Pharm. 2023;9:100218.

Mandatory error reporting systems can help identify types, causes, and solutions to medication-related errors. More than 30,000 medication-related incidents were reported by community pharmacists to the Assurance and Improvement in Medication (AIMS) Program in Canada. Event type, severity, medication class, and method of detection are described. Only 60% of pharmacies submitted at least one report, indicating compliance with and participation in the AIMS Program remains low.

Pharmacists reducing medication risk in medical outpatient clinics: a retrospective study of 18 clinics.

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Snoswell CL, De Guzman KR, Barras M. Intern Med J. 2023;53:95-103.

Community pharmacists play an important role in ensuring patient safety. This retrospective analysis of 18 outpatient pharmacy clinics evaluated pharmacist recommendations and impacts on medication-related safety. Researchers indicated that outpatient pharmacists were effective in resolving 82% of medication-related problems; 18% of these involved high-risk recommendations, such as medication interactions.

Defining and enhancing collaboration between community pharmacists and primary care providers to improve medication safety.

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White A, Fulda KG, Blythe R, et al. Expert Opin Drug Saf. 2022;21:1357-1364.

Community-based pharmacists have a critical role in ensuring medication safety in community settings. In this narrative review, the authors explored how collaboration between community-based pharmacists and primary care providers can improve medication safety. The most common collaboration strategy was medication review. The authors identified barriers to collaboration from both the primary care provider and pharmacist perspectives.

A scoping review of non-professional medication practices and medication safety outcomes during public health emergencies.

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Kelly D, Koay A, Mineva G, et al. Public Health. 2022;214:50-60.

Natural disasters and other public health emergencies (PHE), such as the COVID-19 pandemic, can dramatically change the delivery of healthcare. This scoping review identified considerable research examining the relationship between public health emergencies and disruptions to personal medication practices (e.g., self-altering medication regimens, access barriers, changing prescribing providers) and subsequent medication-related harm.

ASHP Guidelines on Preventing Diversion of Controlled Substances.

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Clark J, Fera T, Fortier CR, et al. Am J Health Syst Pharm. 2022;79:2279-2306.

Drug diversion is a system issue that has the potential to disrupt patient access to safe, reliable medications and result in harm. These guidelines offer a structured approach for organizations to develop and implement drug diversion prevention efforts. The strategies submitted focus on foundational, organizational, and individual prevention actions that target risk points across the medication use process such as storage, prescribing, and waste disposal.

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