E-Prescribing
Integrated workflows ease staff burden and satisfy regulatory mandates.
POPULATION HEALTH MANAGEMENT
USE CASE
Medication Adherence
Challenge
Determined to make the Emergency Department (ED) a safer entry to hospital admission with fewer adverse drug events (ADEs) for patients, a 390-bed, independent health system tackled one of its greatest challenges—how to make accurate, complete medication history data more doable in the ED.
Metrics
- Percent of patients with errors on their medication list when admitted through the ED
- Number of inpatient orders containing medication history errors originating from the ED
- Average number of medication errors in histories gathered for high-risk patients
Findings
A three-step process:
- Enhanced medication reconciliation
- Prioritized high-risk patients in-workflow
- Delivered more information on high-risk medications
This resulted in identifiable medication history for 91% of patients:
7,712 Abuse-related medications
2,962 Cardiovascular medications
1,515 Thyroid disease medications
1,499 Anticonvulsants
Interventions
- Created a patient complexity score to identify and prioritize medically complex patients
- Assigned ownership of medication history gathering to the pharmacy department
- Developed visual timelines within population health assessment tool to provide a view of adherence gaps
- Identified potential opioid abusers seeking prescriptions from multiple providers across state lines
Results
- Identify and prioritize patients most at risk of an ADE
- Gather complete medication history, including local sources
- Fill in gaps in medication history
- Quick response (within days) when a medication is added, changed, or titrated