Quality of Care Report - Ballarat Health Services

Dr Luke Mitchell and Michelle Hamrosi (medical student) - Medical staff at BHS are trained in the correct use of the National Inpatient MedicationChart (NIMC) to reduce patient medication errorsUsing MedicationsSafelyBallarat Health Services monitors andaddresses medication safety in anumber of ways. With our centralisedreporting management system, we areable to identify ways that our systemscan be improved so that we can reduceerrors in this area.Staff have been encouraged to becomfortable reporting errors, so thatanalysis of incidents can be undertakenand steps taken to prevent moreNumber of incidents6005004003002001000serious errors.Since 2005, the Base Hospital,Psychiatry and sub-acute sites haveconsistently improved reporting ofmedication incidents. The residentialfacilities have shown significantimprovement in reporting over the past12 months, with the six months toJune 2008 being now almost twice the2005 reporting rate.Some of our achievements in safemedication practiceIn 2008, BHS participated in the QualityUse of Medicines initiative – a webMedication Incident Reporting2005 2006 2007based program developed by theClinical Excellence Commission to assisthospitals in developing safermedication systems. The programconsists of a self-assessment that thehospital completes and a set ofmedication safety indicators. At thispoint, the program is a tool forhospitals to use to plan improvementlocally, however in the future, we maybe able to compare our performanceagainst other similar organisations.A Thromboprophylaxis (clot prevention)working group was established toreview and update treatmentguidelines for those patients whorequire blood thinning medicines suchas Warfarin. Because of the work ofthis group, there is a closer workingrelationship with General Practitionersin managing Warfarin in patients whohave recently been discharged fromhospital.The Australian Pharmaceutical AdvisoryCouncil has developed guidelines formedication management in residentialaged care facilities. Ballarat HealthServices Residential Service hasundertaken a large body of work inrecent years in order to be compliantwith these standards.Hospital, Psychiatry and sub acuteResidential35Ballarat Health Services Quality of Care Report 2007-08