Policy Update: Med Admin Unanticpated Events

This isn't really anything new, but it was reviewed this past January. Here are the highlights, please refer to the policy for full text.

An unanticipated event is considered a medication error or adverse drug event (reaction).

A med error is defined as:

• A med given that was not ordered
• Wrong dose or extra dose given
• Omission of a dose without a reasonable explanation documented on MAR
• Drug given in wrong form, wrong route, or wrong patient
• Drug given at wrong time. Exceptions for surgery or procedures must be documented. A 2 hour window is OK for most standard meds. Antibiotics need to be given within 30 minutes of scheduled time.
  
• Any circumstance that pharmacy and nursing believe is a med error.

An adverse drug event is an undesirable or unexpected result from a drug that requires discontinuation of the drug, modification of a dose, prolonged hospitalization, or providing supportive treatment.

If one of the above occurs, notify charge nurse and attending MD. Also notify for medication refusals by the patient.

Document:

• Acutal drug, dose, route, etc. of drug given in error on the MAR.
• When a drug is not given (and why) or refused.
• In the patient record - the event, the outcome, and who was notified.
  
• File an Occurrence Report, but do not chart that an Occurrence Report was filed.