You are working at a long-term care facility and have been appointed
to serve on a new committee. The purpose of the committee is to improve
medication safety in the facility. Currently, the medication orders are
handwritten in each patient’s chart. The orders are then sent to the
pharmacy via fax. The nurses copy the medication orders by hand onto the
medication administration record (MAR). The facility does not use
barcoding or computer-generated MARs. Medications are supplied from the
pharmacy in bulk rather than in unit dose. (Learning Objectives 2, 3,
and 7)
1. Discuss the potential for medication errors in the
current system. What processes are in place that could make medication
errors more likely to occur?
2. Develop suggested solutions for
each of the process issues identified. What additional suggestions for
improving medication safety can you identify?
3. What would be the potential advantages and disadvantages of implementing a barcoding system in this facility?
