Medication safety programs focus on the five rights, barcode scanning and double checks. Storage design gets far less attention.
An analysis of Institute for Safe Medication Practices (ISMP) reporting data found selection errors in 28 percent of relevant events involving multi-access compartments, compared with 7 percent involving single-access compartments. A larger share of multi-access events also reached patients.
Both ISMP and American Society of Health-System Pharmacists (ASHP) recommend medication storage practices that limit access, reduce selection errors, and enhance medication safety, particularly for high-alert and look-alike, sound-alike medications.
Health system leaders point to another consequence on the floor: time spent searching for medications is time away from patient care.
Inside this white paper:
- What ISMP reporting data reveals about selection errors and patient harm
- Where storage design carries the most risk: high-alert, controlled and look-alike medications
- How single-access compartments change retrieval in fast-paced units
- What nursing and pharmacy leaders say about time lost to searching