Medication errors can lead to adverse drug events, which are associated with increased total hospitalization cost and length of stay (McCarthy, Tuiskula, Driscoll, & Davis, 2017), with an estimate of 44,000 Americans from medical errors (Hanifin, & Zielenski, 2020). Slight, Seger, Franz, Wong, & Bates (2018) estimated a national cost projection of $871 million to $1.8 billion to treat avoidable adverse drug events. Hanifin and Zielenski (2020) found that addressing the medication error problem with initiatives supported by an interdisciplinary team has resulted in a successful decrease in medication error rates.
At the clinic where I work, I would have the therapist, nurses, clinic manager, pharmacist, physician/advanced practice provider, and information technologists on my team. The nurses are responsible for making sure the medications are sent properly and the client understands and must be sure that the correct medication is dispense to the patient as ordered by the provider. The provider’s role is to order the correct medication as appropriate for each patient’s clinical condition. The pharmacist is available to consult if a provider is unsure of what to order, or if a nurse has questions about dose safety or how it is to be administered. The information technologist’s role is to provide medication entry/charting in the patient’s electronic medical record and relay the findings to the clinic manager. The nurse’s role is to review the IT-generated report for accuracy and report results to the practice.
Teamwork is best achieved through communication and understanding, as well as respecting each team member’s roles, responsibilities, and concerns (White, 2016). Each member of the team should come together initially to delineate his/her unique responsibilities. With the clarity of each other’s roles and responsibilities, members should hold one another accountable and collectively answer to the leader of the collaboration, which typically would be the nurse and the provider who holds responsibility for the safety initiative and tasking clinical staff to find evidence-based solutions to the problem. My workplace has 5-minute, daily huddles that take place at 8 in the morning before our workday begins. Each huddle session summarizes issues from the previous workday and highlights essential events/patients for the same day and the day after. This huddle session would be a great way to follow-up on divided tasks outlined in the paragraph above.
White & Dang (2018) highlighted a critical barrier – time. Each member of the team will need uninterrupted time to think about and discuss the problem. Biweekly or weekly staff meetings, spanning 30-60 minutes, are ideal for each team member to have the opportunity to voice their concerns. Also, the team leader should encourage everyone to voice their concerns publicly and privately for effective communication and collaboration. Above all, the team leader must encourage each team member to value one another’s professions, interests, concerns, and responsibilities (White & Dang, 2018).
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