Each module is designed to help instructors develop and meet the course objectives within a 50-minute teaching opportunity, but flexibility is encouraged to customize the content or delivery methods to fit your goals and schedules. The use of local data, systems, and cases is encouraged wherever appropriate. While each module is offered in a linear format, that is only one delivery option (there is no "right way"). We encourage you to add, delete, rearrange, and customize the accompanying materials, tools, and references to meet the needs of your particular audience. If you need assistance, either technical or instructional, please contact the CRICO/RMF Patient Safety Education Program Director.
Whatever you create from the Core Curriculum materials will be unique, and of interest to your colleagues. Please use the feedback links located throughout the site to share with us, and future instructors, what worked, what didn't, how your audience responded, and any suggestions for an optimal learning opportunity.
Medication is one of the cornerstones of health care, and it’s role is growing with every new pharmaceutical discovery. From the moment a newborn receives antibiotic eye drops to the analgesics we receive to ease our final days, medication is a universal experience. The complex process of selecting, ordering, preparing, delivering, and administering medications is repeated so often that the temptation for assumption, inattention, or workarounds is significant. To counter those potential risks, everyone along the medication path needs a system of checks and double-checks to ensure that:
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Each clinician and non-clinician working in the CRICO-insured system will be able to:
This brief synopsis may be helpful as a handout to attendees prior to or at the beginning of your program.
One way or the other, we are all involved with medication. And thus, we all have the potential to be involved in a medication error. As health care providers, we order/precribe medications, we prepare and deliver those orders, and we administer and monitor whatever the doctor ordered. If working with medications is not part of our job, it is likely part of our personal life. More than half of Americans take one or more medication daily (more than 2.8 billion prescriptions—or 11 for every person in the United States—are dispensed each year). Episodes of acute illness or surgery virtually always involve drugs. On either side of the medication interaction, we hope everyone gets it right.
Unfortunately, the frequency with which something goes wrong is significantly worrisome. In fact, 61 percent of hospital patients in America are worried about getting the wrong medication.
Annually in the United States, up to 7,000 deaths—many of them preventable—are associated with medication-related errors. Within the CRICO-insured institutions, malpractice claims involving med-errors cost about $5 million per year. That is only a fraction of the cost associated with the vast majority of medication errors that—although they don’t lead to lawsuits—incur millions of dollars in prolonged hospital stays, delayed surgery, wasted supplies, and other preventable inefficiencies.
Given the volume, frequency, and complexity of drug orders and administration, reducing medication errors is both daunting and feasible. No one can solve all the problems, and not every problem can be easily fixed. Some solutions require large, systemwide investments of time, money, and training—and, most often, those are worth that investment. But, simple solutions to repeated errors can also have a significant impact on patient safety. Many do not require computers or re-engineering, but instead rely on the wisdom and common sense of the individuals who order, prepare, deliver, administer—and receive—medications.
Where your work crosses the medication path, and where you see problems arise, is where to get started.
