Abstract

A STEP FORWARD TO LEAN APPROACH USING A PRECISE, CONVENIENT AND QUICK INTRAVENOUS MEDICATION INFUSION MONITORING TOOL (MONIFUS) FOR DECREASING WASTAGE IN A TERTIARY CARE HOSPITAL

Lateef Shaikh*, Khan Naveed, Sallam Manal

Abstract

Objectives: A key component of the medication management and use processes is the monitoring of medications by pharmacists. In hospital settings, with the frequent challenges associated with the availability of medications especially in critical care areas appropriate monitoring of drug wastage is even more critical. Methods: In order to increase time effectiveness and decrease wastage a tool (MoniFus) was designed to monitor and decrease the wastage of intravenous medications in an efficient manner. MoniFus is a tracking system that works by recording the critical intravenous medications being issued against each nursing communication. The focus was in areas where nonavailability of these important IV medications can create an unsafe situation for patients who require these necessary treatments. The critical care areas we focused on were different intensive care units (ICU) settings including the adult ICU, pediatric intensive care unit (PICU), cardiac surgery intensive care unit (CSICU), and neonatal intensive care unit (NICU). A comparison was done with pre and post intervention for a period of two months and data was shown on an excel spread sheet as well as being plotted on a graph. Results: Comparison of pre and post data shows a decrease by 6.67% in the number of unnecessary communications received by the Pharmacy in the defined time period. The data also showed a 10.16% decrease of intravenous medications wastage which led to a cost reduction of 9.32% within one month duration. Conclusion: This intervention proved to be a great method in increasing patient safety by minimizing not only the wastage of medications being used in ICU settings but also by decreasing the workload on the pharmacist by reducing the need to prepare unnecessary doses and the reduction in unnecessary communications. The time saving due to the use of the tool (Monifus) will allow the pharmacist in these setting to concentrate on providing better clinical care to the patients and reflects the essence of lean thinking processes.

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