The Role of Managed Care Pharmacy in Reducing Medication Errors

Abstract

Managed care pharmacy is well positioned to affect change in the health care system. Through information dissemination and education, managed care pharmacists should play a more active role in medication error-reduction activities by improving the patient education process and in assisting the pharmacy community in its goal of improving patient safety.

Medication Errors: Scope and prevention strategies

“…Organizations must bridge the gap in health literacy and improve communication [57] . Potential areas for development include the implementation of adherence programs, empowering patients with innovative programs, ensuring education materials are written in the 5th grade reading level, and field-testing educational materials using patient focus groups [58] .…”

“…Health care organizations have large databases available for identifying patients who are not compliant with medications or for the identification of unsafe medication practices [58] . In either case, the organization may bring these issues to the attention of the responsible health care provider using traditional (i.e., letters) or electronic approaches (i.e., computer alerts).…”

Therapeutic errors involving adults in the community setting: nature, causes and outcomes

“…These include improved patient education 4,10 and healthcare literacy, 4 the use of dosage administration containers, 10 additional personnel and improved training for those administering medications, 17 and improved reporting and feedback systems for residential care facilities. 24 In her review, Mager 2 also emphasised increased communication between healthcare professionals, reduction in polypharmacy, collaboration with the pharmacist, and the utilisation of written lists and diagrams for patient use.…”

“…These errors represent a challenge to best practice patient management and can account for considerable patient morbidity, mortality and healthcare expenditure. [3][4][5] It has been estimated that one in three home care patients is at risk. 6 To date, the literature has concentrated on prescribing, transcribing and pharmacy dispensing errors.…”

A Prescription Analysis Exercise in a Pharmaceutical Care Laboratory Course

“…1 Medication error morbidity and mortality costs are estimated to be $77 billion per year, imposing a significant financial burden on patients and the health care system. 2 While most medication errors occur at the points of prescribing and administration, 1 pharmacists play an important role in preventing errors that occur at the point of dispensing. In the mid-1990s, there were errors with 24% of prescriptions dispensed in the community pharmacy setting.…”