Don’t take your medications lightly” is the advice Alabama’s hospital leaders are giving to patients and their families during the third phase of a year-long patient safety campaign called Join the Health Journey. While medicines can be powerful healing agents, if taken incorrectly, they can cause great harm. For the next several months, hospitals across the state will be encouraging patients and their families to participate in making their care safer, particularly when taking medicines.
“The Institute of Medicine estimates that 400,000 medication errors occur nationwide in hospitals each year, costing approximately $3.5 billion,” said J. Michael Horsley, president of the Alabama Hospital Association, the organization spearheading the patient safety campaign. “Hospitals are focusing heavily on ways they can prevent these errors and are making progress, but they need the help of patients.”
When asked about the specific efforts underway, Horsley said hospitals were using electronic scanning systems to check patients’ wristbands before administering medications, improving dispensing mechanisms and putting systems in place to monitor medications, called high-alert medications, that are known to have bad side effects if not used appropriately. “Since today’s hospital patients tend to be older and sicker, the number of medications they take is much greater than in the past, so it’s a big challenge to be sure they get the right amount of medication and that there aren’t any drug to drug reactions,” added Horsley.
“Studies have shown that more involvement of patients results in better care,” said Horsley. “We’re trying to encourage patients to ask more questions, such as “What is the pill I’m taking?” and “Why am I taking it?” They need to ask if they’re taking one of the “high-alert” medications, and if so, what side effects should they be watching for. They should let their doctor and nurse know if they’re allergic to any medication and tell them what medicines and dosages they take at home. A patient should not continue to take medicines while hospitalized without discussing this with his/her health care provider first.
Horsley explained that the Join the Health Journey campaign is an ongoing effort to focus on things hospitals can do to improve the care they provide and to enlist the help of patients and their families. The first phase focused on infection prevention, the second on improving communication and this week marks the launch of the medication safety portion. Additional information on each topic can be found at www.jointhehealthjourney.com.
The Alabama Hospital Association, based in Montgomery, is a statewide trade organization that represents more than 100 hospitals and numerous other health care providers in their efforts to provide quality health care.
