Healthcare Management Opportunity; Application of Technology in Healthcare

Healthcare Management Opportunity; Application of Technology in Healthcare

2. Professional Lens; Clinical Professional.
3. Medication Errors.

In the management of the patient, pharmacological treatments form a significant part.
As such, medication administration is at the core of treatment interventions. Nurses spend
approximately 25% of their working hours administering medications to the patient. During
this medication administration process, it is expected that the five rights of drug
administration, it's expected that the five rights of drug administration are adhered to, that;
the right patient, the right dose, the right drug, the right route and the right time. Nonetheless,
medication errors still occur and are costly. A medication error can be simply defined as an
event where a drug is administered to a patient in a manner that renders the drug harmful or
less useful to the patient. Medication errors are undesired due to the negative outcomes that
accompany them. The total cost of medication errors to the economy of the United States is
estimated to be around 419.5 Billion annually with approximate $13,000 being the average
cost of a single medication error (Tariq et al., 2020). Though the numbers of medication
errors reported are not precise, most studies approximate the annual incidence of medication
errors as somewhere around 1.5 million, though the figure may be higher than this.
Medication errors present a considerable challenge to healthcare systems since it worsens the
probable clinical outcomes of the patient. The harm brought to the patient is tremendous
considering that it can lead to patient harm, lengthened hospital stays, arising complications
from the drugs and worsened clinical outcomes. Medication errors can also lead to death and
disability in the patient. In the US alone, over 100,00 deaths every year are attributed to
medication errors, a huge number that can be avoided if in any case necessary and
worthwhile interventions are implemented. The burden is also equally heavy on the family

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members and friends of the patient considering that they will ultimately spend more in terms
of medical costs in managing the patient. Additionally, there may be resulting lawsuits and
court battles that usually lead to bad outcomes for both the hospital`s reputation and also the
professional careers of the nurses and healthcare professionals involved (Weingart et al.,
2018). As such, it is equally important that quality interventions be designed in the efforts of
reducing the occurrence of these medication errors considering the negative outcomes that are
associated with them. This may require the adoption of new technology-based interventions
that are more suited towards providing significant impact in reducing and eliminating
medication errors. As such, this capstone will focus on the use of such a technology, Bar
Code Medication Administration (BCMA).

4. Current Process Overview of Medication Administration.
Medication administration is among the key roles that nurses play in the clinical
setting. Different conditions, depending on their severity require different types of drugs that
are administered via different routes, in different forms and at different times. As such, in the
hospital setting, almost every patient is on a certain type of medication except for special
cases where the patient is awaiting discharge from the hospital or his previous medications
are under review to prescribe new medications (Getnet & Bifftu, 2017). Administration of
medications to these patients require that the five rights of drug administration are adhered to
to ensure that the medication is given to the right patient, at the right time, via the right route
and in the right dosage. Different hospitals have different structures and layouts of the wards
and the hospital beds. The more populous ones where several patients’ beds are arranged in a
bigger hall will have the nurses preferring to carry and administer the drugs for the different
patients all at once while that wouldn't be the same case in hospitals where it is one bed per
room.

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The sequence of events ranging from the point the medication enters the hospital to
when its administered to the patient is almost the same in most facilities. The first stage in the
process is usually the ordering and receipt of the drugs by the hospital from either a
pharmaceutical company, a pharmaceutical supplier or in other cases, the
department/ministry of health. These drugs are received in bulk and hence entered into the
hospital`s inventory. At this point, they may be kept in the hospital`s store or transfer