Can You Help Prevent These Insulin-Delivery Errors?

New consensus-based guidelines may inspire ideas to curb errors.   Insulin is considered a high-alert medication because it is often associated with significant patient harm when used in error.  “According to a 2014 survey of pharmacists and nurses conducted by the Institute for Safe Medication Practices (ISMP), IV insulin ranked first and subcutaneous insulin ranked ninth among nearly 40 drugs and drug classes identified as high-alert medications that concerned practitioners,” Susan F. Paparella, RN, MSN, vice president, ISMP, told MD+DI. “Yet of all the high-alert medications, subcutaneous insulin came in last place when pharmacists and nurses were asked to rank how confident they were regarding the effectiveness of hospital-wide precautions to prevent serious errors. These survey findings suggest a consensus among pharmacists and nurses that patients remain vulnerable to errors with subcutaneous insulin, and that more must be done to prevent errors with this high-alert medication.”    To identify the risks associated with subcutaneous insulin delivery, ISMP has released a set of consensus-based recommendations entitled ISMP Guidelines for Optimizing Safe Subcutaneous Insulin Use in Adults.   Numerous stakeholders contributed to the development of the guidelines, which grew out of a national summit ISMP held with practitioners, professional organizations, regulatory bodies, and insulin product vendors. “Key areas of action that are addressed in the resultin...
Source: MDDI - Category: Medical Devices Authors: Tags: Medical Device Business Source Type: news