Medical error prevention training

Multidisciplinary educational programs should be developed for health care personnel about medication error prevention. Because many errors happen when procedures are not followed, this is one area on which to focus through newsletters and in-service training. It also is important for pharmacy staff not just to focus on their own internal errors but also to look at other pharmacies errors and methods of prevention and to learn from them. Organizations such as the ISMP, USP, and many others provide ongoing features to facilitate these reviews in publications such as Hospital Pharmacy, Pharmacy Today, U.S. Pharmacist, and Pharmacy and Therapeutics or newsletters that report on current medication safety issues and offer recommendations for changes. 

Medical Team Resource Management and Error Prevention Training... 

The underlying emphasis of the program is the enhancement of team performance in the medical environment. All members of a medical team need to work together as a well-stmctured, well-fimctioiiing team that has as its main aim patient safety. Failure to act as a well-coordinated team that understands all the issues present and conmiunicates freely and accurately can lead to detrimental consequences for the patient. Medical TRM and error prevention training is designed to prevent such occurrences. 

The Council recommends that healthcare organizations develop and implement (or provide access to) education and training programs for healthcare professionals, technical support personnel, patients, and caregivers that address methods for reducing and preventing medication errors. 

FMS s 2-day intensive medical TRM program introduces team members to the basic concepts of human performance, as used by the aviation industry in its attempts to understand and prevent crew errors, incidents and accidents. Using a variety of actual airline accident and medical incident case studies, program participants will learn about crew resomce management principles, and how CRM training has achieved positive safety results within the international airhne industry. 

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