In the effort to eliminate medication errors, incident reports play a key role as each potential error caught can be considered an opportunity for improving patient care and safety. The success of an incident reporting system is predicated upon its ease of  use and whether personnel are encouraged to report these errors without fear of disciplinary action.

With voluntary reporting, workers are able to report, describe, and offer insight into what could potentially be life-threatening errors. Finding the right tools, such as a reliable and easy-to-use error reporting software program, that allow workers to easily report such errors is paramount in the effort to prevent medication errors.

Suggested minimum fields for medication error data collection:

• Patient information
• Date, time, setting/location of event
• Name of medication ordered
• Name of medication given (if different)
• Therapeutic classification of medication
• Route of administration
• Description of event
• Patient outcome

 

In addition, trigger tools, performance reports from electronic medication management systems, observation-based data, prospective assessments, and prospective monitoring of the literature are some of the methods that can round out your error management program.

Another essential element for a successful program is confidentiality protection for patients, reporters, health care professionals, and the organization. The reporting system also must be easy to access so reports may be completed near the time of the event when details are fresh in the reporter’s mind.

Several vendors offer incident reporting software to meet these needs through the tracking, reporting and managing of incidents. They also strive to improve productivity and increase communication among staff, while helping to reduce potential medication errors.

With this in mind,  PP&P seeks to increase your awareness of the available systems and brings you the following buyer’s guide, offering descriptions of some of the products in the market. You can use this buyer’s guide to research your options and learn about the numerous vendors offering incident reporting software.

ACS MIDAS+
For more information visit www.midasplus.com

The Drug Therapy module in the MIDAS+ Care Management system offers an integrated solution that combines detailed medication administration data with patient demographic, diagnosis, and surgical procedure data. In doing so, it provides the clinical pharmacologist with easy-to-use tools for conducting medication usage evaluation and adverse drug event reporting activities.

When using the optional lab interface, pharmacists can be automatically alerted when laboratory results indicate a dosing modification is needed. With the MIDAS+ SmarTrack rules-based processing engine, users can define complex work-list rules that provide automated notifications via email or pager when trigger events occur, such as administration of a reversal agent or lab results indicating non-therapeutic drug levels.

MIDAS+ SmarTrack can also be used to define custom quality metrics, such as the number of adverse drug events per 1,000 administered doses or the percent of ventilator patients on stress ulcer prophylaxis. Measures can be combined into unitor provider-specific profiles allowing for trending of data monthly, quarterly, or semiannually. Compiled data can then be analyzed using Statistical Process Control charts.

The MIDAS+ Drug Therapy module includes packaged standard reports as well as the ReporTrack tool for building custom reports using any data element available in the MIDAS+ Care Management system.

Asolva, Inc.
For more information visit www.asolva.com

Asolva’s Quocient is a data collection and reporting system for surveys, inspections and documentation. Quocient’s usages include ADRs, medication errors, floor inspections, interventions, medical record reviews, significant events and any other scenarios where data needs to be collected in a structured, efficient and secure way. Quocient allows multiple users to enter data into a central database that can then be browsed and searched. Data can be entered from anywhere via a web browser or a handheld. The form designer tool allows for creation of new forms that can be quickly published for immediate data entry. User access settings maintain data security. No special software is required on your computer to access Quocient.

Quocient is Asolva’s next generation data collection and reporting system based on the original Q-Forms web and PDA system, and will be released in early 2009.  Early release to a targeted audience may be available upon request.

Q Solutions, Inc.
For more information visit www.qstatim.com

QSTATIM Incident Manager is a software application for reporting, analyzing and managing unusual occurrences and sentinel events. By tracking, reporting and managing daily incidents, you can use the resultant information to improve productivity, increase staff communication, and help reduce errors.

This software encourages accurate and timely reporting of incidents,  meets Joint Commission and HIPPA requirements, allows evidence-based modifications to support patient care, and provides the tools to better manage risk or litigation. It also eliminates the paper trail — thereby increasing the reliability of the reporting process.

The reporting tools allow for analysis and give each manager the ability to monitor data in their own area. Because it is installed on an internal or external web/data server, you can limit access to within your intranet or allow access from the Internet, and there is no need to upgrade each workstation.

Statit Software, Inc.
For more information visit www.statit.com

Statit piMD allows you to access, track, analyze, compare and contrast clinical, operational, financial and quality key performance indicators—for a single facility or a multi-facility organization—from a browser.Statit piMD resides on a web server, on your network, behind your firewall. Access is through your web browser and based upon the user’s access level, providing access only to those reports they have permission to view.

The decision support solutions give decision makers a cross-functional snapshot of your organization’s key performance indicators, and that information, in turn, can be applied to managing costs, maintaining or improving quality levels, efficiencies and profitability, as well as meeting external requirements.
 
Our dashboard/scorecard and trend charts are created by end-users with no technical skills required, so there is little or no reliance on your IT personnel.  Further, Statit’s professional services team provides preand post-sales support.