National Healthcare Quality and Disparities Report
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Topics
- Adverse Drug Events (ADE) (12)
- Adverse Events (11)
- Ambulatory Care and Surgery (1)
- Children/Adolescents (1)
- Clinical Decision Support (CDS) (1)
- Diagnostic Safety and Quality (2)
- Electronic Health Records (EHRs) (5)
- Electronic Prescribing (E-Prescribing) (4)
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- (-) Health Information Technology (HIT) (13)
- (-) Medical Errors (13)
- Medication (13)
- (-) Medication: Safety (13)
- Patient Safety (13)
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- Provider (2)
- Provider: Pharmacist (2)
- Risk (1)
- Telehealth (2)
- Transplantation (1)
AHRQ Research Studies
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Research Studies is a compilation of published research articles funded by AHRQ or authored by AHRQ researchers.
Results
1 to 13 of 13 Research Studies DisplayedTaft T, Rudd EA, Thraen I
"Are we there yet?" Ten persistent hazards and inefficiencies with the use of medication administration technology from the perspective of practicing nurses.
The objectives of this study were to characterize persistent hazards and inefficiencies in inpatient medication administration, to explore cognitive attributes of medication administration tasks, and to discuss strategies to reduce technology-related hazards. Researchers interviewed nurses at two urban US health systems. Persistent safety hazards and inefficiencies related to medication administration technology were organized around the perception-action cycle (PAC) cycle. The researchers concluded that errors may persist in medication administration despite successful deployment of Bar Code Medication Administration and Electronic Medication Administration Record. Opportunities to improve would require a deeper understanding of high-level reasoning in medication administration.
AHRQ-funded; HS025136.
Citation: Taft T, Rudd EA, Thraen I .
"Are we there yet?" Ten persistent hazards and inefficiencies with the use of medication administration technology from the perspective of practicing nurses.
J Am Med Inform Assoc 2023 Apr 19; 30(5):809-18. doi: 10.1093/jamia/ocad031..
Keywords: Medication, Electronic Prescribing (E-Prescribing), Health Information Technology (HIT), Patient Safety, Adverse Drug Events (ADE), Medical Errors, Medication: Safety
Grauer A, Rosen A, Applebaum JR
Examining medication ordering errors using AHRQ network of patient safety databases.
Research on the impact of Computerized Physician Order Entry (CPOE) systems on drug order inaccuracies has shown inconsistent results, with CPOE not reliably preventing such mistakes. The study utilized the Network of Patient Safety Databases (NPSD) from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) to explore the frequency and degree of harm associated with reported events during the ordering stage, and to classify them by error type.
The researchers conducted a retrospective analysis of reported safety incidents provided by healthcare systems associated with patient safety organizations from June 2010 to December 2020. All errors related to medication and other substance orders reported to the NPSD using the common format v1.2 during this period were assessed. The researchers grouped and categorized the prevalence of reported medication order errors by error type, harm levels, and demographic data. The study found that during the study period, 12,830 mistakes were reported. Incorrect dosage accounted for 3,812 errors (29.7%), followed by incorrect medicine 2,086 (16.3%), and incorrect duration 765 (6.0%). Out of 5,282 incidents that affected the patient and had a known severity level, 12 resulted in fatalities, 4 led to severe harm, 45 caused moderate harm, 341 led to minor harm, and 4,880 resulted in no harm. The study concluded that the most frequently reported and damaging types of medication order errors were incorrect dose and incorrect medication orders.
The researchers conducted a retrospective analysis of reported safety incidents provided by healthcare systems associated with patient safety organizations from June 2010 to December 2020. All errors related to medication and other substance orders reported to the NPSD using the common format v1.2 during this period were assessed. The researchers grouped and categorized the prevalence of reported medication order errors by error type, harm levels, and demographic data. The study found that during the study period, 12,830 mistakes were reported. Incorrect dosage accounted for 3,812 errors (29.7%), followed by incorrect medicine 2,086 (16.3%), and incorrect duration 765 (6.0%). Out of 5,282 incidents that affected the patient and had a known severity level, 12 resulted in fatalities, 4 led to severe harm, 45 caused moderate harm, 341 led to minor harm, and 4,880 resulted in no harm. The study concluded that the most frequently reported and damaging types of medication order errors were incorrect dose and incorrect medication orders.
AHRQ-funded; HS026121.
Citation: Grauer A, Rosen A, Applebaum JR .
Examining medication ordering errors using AHRQ network of patient safety databases.
J Am Med Inform Assoc 2023 Apr 19; 30(5):838-45. doi: 10.1093/jamia/ocad007..
Keywords: Medication, Adverse Drug Events (ADE), Adverse Events, Medical Errors, Patient Safety, Electronic Prescribing (E-Prescribing), Health Information Technology (HIT), Medication: Safety
Watterson TL, Stone JA, Brown R
CancelRx: a health IT tool to reduce medication discrepancies in the outpatient setting.
Medication list discrepancies between outpatient clinics and pharmacies can lead to medication errors. Within the last decade, a new health information technology (IT), CancelRx, emerged to send a medication cancellation message from the clinic's electronic health record (EHR) to the outpatient pharmacy's software. The objective of this study was to measure the impact of CancelRx on reducing medication discrepancies between the EHR and pharmacy dispensing software.
AHRQ-funded; HS025793.
Citation: Watterson TL, Stone JA, Brown R .
CancelRx: a health IT tool to reduce medication discrepancies in the outpatient setting.
J Am Med Inform Assoc 2021 Jul 14;28(7):1526-33. doi: 10.1093/jamia/ocab038..
Keywords: Medication: Safety, Medication, Medical Errors, Adverse Drug Events (ADE), Adverse Events, Patient Safety, Electronic Health Records (EHRs), Health Information Technology (HIT), Ambulatory Care and Surgery
King CR, Abraham J, Fritz BA
Predicting self-intercepted medication ordering errors using machine learning.
Current approaches to understanding medication ordering errors rely on relatively small manually captured error samples. These approaches are resource-intensive, do not scale for computerized provider order entry (CPOE) systems, and are likely to miss important risk factors associated with medication ordering errors. Previously, the investigators described a dataset of CPOE-based medication voiding accompanied by univariable and multivariable regression analyses. In this paper, they updated the analysis using machine learning (ML) models to predict erroneous medication orders and identify its contributing factors.
AHRQ-funded; HS025443.
Citation: King CR, Abraham J, Fritz BA .
Predicting self-intercepted medication ordering errors using machine learning.
PLoS One 2021 Jul 14;16(7):e0254358. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0254358..
Keywords: Medication, Medical Errors, Adverse Drug Events (ADE), Adverse Events, Medication: Safety, Patient Safety, Electronic Prescribing (E-Prescribing), Health Information Technology (HIT)
Gonzales HM, Fleming JN, Gebregziabher M
Pharmacist-led mobile health intervention and transplant medication safety: a randomized controlled clinical trial.
The goal of this study was to examine the efficacy of improving medication safety through a pharmacist-led, mobile health-based intervention. In this single-center study of adult kidney recipients 6-36 months post-transplant, findings showed that participants receiving the intervention experienced a significant reduction in medication errors and a significantly lower incidence risk of Grade 3 or higher adverse events. The intervention arm also demonstrated significantly lower rates of hospitalizations.
AHRQ-funded; HS023754.
Citation: Gonzales HM, Fleming JN, Gebregziabher M .
Pharmacist-led mobile health intervention and transplant medication safety: a randomized controlled clinical trial.
Clin J Am Soc Nephrol 2021 May 8;16(5):776-84. doi: 10.2215/cjn.15911020..
Keywords: Medication: Safety, Medication, Patient Safety, Transplantation, Telehealth, Health Information Technology (HIT), Provider: Pharmacist, Provider, Medical Errors, Adverse Drug Events (ADE), Adverse Events
Kane-Gill SL, Wong A, Culley CM
JA, et al. Transforming the medication regimen review process using telemedicine to prevent adverse events.
The objective of this study was to determine the impact of pharmacist-led telemedicine services on reducing high-risk medication adverse drug events (ADEs) for nursing home (NH) residents using medication reconciliation and prospective medication regimen reviews (MRRs) on admission plus ongoing clinical decision support alerts throughout the residents' stay. Studying residents in four NHs in Southwestern Pennsylvania, findings showed that the intervention group had a 92% lower incidence of alert-specific ADEs than usual care, and all-cause hospitalization was similar between groups, as were 30-day readmissions.
AHRQ-funded; HS02420.
Citation: Kane-Gill SL, Wong A, Culley CM .
JA, et al. Transforming the medication regimen review process using telemedicine to prevent adverse events.
J Am Geriatr Soc 2021 Feb;69(2):530-38. doi: 10.1111/jgs.16946..
Keywords: Medication: Safety, Medication, Adverse Drug Events (ADE), Adverse Events, Medical Errors, Patient Safety, Telehealth, Health Information Technology (HIT), Provider: Pharmacist, Provider, Clinical Decision Support (CDS), Prevention
Abraham J, Galanter WL, Touchette D
Risk factors associated with medication ordering errors.
This study’s goal was to collect data on “voided” orders in computerized order entry systems for medication to 1) identify the nature and characteristics of medication ordering errors; 2) investigate the risk factors associated with these errors and; 3) explore potential strategies to mitigate these risk factors. Data was collected using clinician interviews and surveys within 24 hours of the voided order and using chart reviews. During the 16-month study period 1074 medication orders were voided, with 842 being true medication errors. A total of 22% reached the patient, with at least a single administration, but without causing patient harm. Interviews were conducted on 355 voided orders (33%). Errors were associated with multiple factors not just a single risk factor. The causal contributors included a combination of technological-, cognitive-, environment-, social-, and organization-level factors.
AHRQ-funded; HS025443.
Citation: Abraham J, Galanter WL, Touchette D .
Risk factors associated with medication ordering errors.
J Am Med Inform Assoc 2021 Jan 15;28(1):86-94. doi: 10.1093/jamia/ocaa264..
Keywords: Medication: Safety, Electronic Prescribing (E-Prescribing), Medication: Safety, Medication, Medical Errors, Adverse Drug Events (ADE), Adverse Events, Risk, Health Information Technology (HIT), Patient Safety
Salmasian H, Blanchfield BB, Joyce K
Association of display of patient photographs in the electronic health record with wrong-patient order entry errors.
Wrong-patient order entry (WPOE) errors have a high potential for harm; these errors are particularly frequent wherever workflows are complex and multitasking and interruptions are common, such as in the emergency department (ED). The purpose of this study was to evaluate whether the use of noninterruptive display of patient photographs in the banner of the electronic health record (EHR) is associated with a decreased rate of WPOE errors.
AHRQ-funded; HS024713.
Citation: Salmasian H, Blanchfield BB, Joyce K .
Association of display of patient photographs in the electronic health record with wrong-patient order entry errors.
AMA Netw Open 2020 Nov 2;3(11):e2019652. doi: 10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2020.19652..
Keywords: Electronic Health Records (EHRs), Health Information Technology (HIT), Medical Errors, Adverse Drug Events (ADE), Adverse Events, Medication, Medication: Safety, Patient Safety, Diagnostic Safety and Quality
Wang J, Liang H, Kang H
Understanding health information technology induced medication safety events by two conceptual frameworks.
While health information technology (health IT) is able to prevent medication errors in many ways, it may also potentially introduce new paths to errors. To understand the impact of health IT induced medication errors, this study aimed to conduct a retrospective analysis of medication safety reports. The investigators concluded that the two frameworks provided an opportunity to understand a comprehensive context of safety event and the impact of health IT induced errors on medication safety.
AHRQ-funded; HS022895.
Citation: Wang J, Liang H, Kang H .
Understanding health information technology induced medication safety events by two conceptual frameworks.
Appl Clin Inform 2019 Jan;10(1):158-67. doi: 10.1055/s-0039-1678693..
Keywords: Health Information Technology (HIT), Medication: Safety, Medication, Patient Safety, Adverse Drug Events (ADE), Adverse Events, Medical Errors
Schiff G, Mirica MM, Dhavle AA
A prescription for enhancing electronic prescribing safety.
The authors review six areas in which electronic prescribing areas can be improved to transform medication ordering quality and safety. They recommend incorporating medication indications into electronic prescribing, establishing a single shared online medication list, implementing an electronic cancellation mechanism for pharmacies, implementing standardized structured and codified prescription instruction, reengineering clinical decision support, and redesigning electronic prescribing to facilitate ordering of nondrug alternatives.
AHRQ-funded; HS023694.
Citation: Schiff G, Mirica MM, Dhavle AA .
A prescription for enhancing electronic prescribing safety.
Health Aff 2018 Nov;37(11):1877-83. doi: 10.1377/hlthaff.2018.0725..
Keywords: Adverse Drug Events (ADE), Adverse Events, Health Information Technology (HIT), Healthcare Delivery, Medical Errors, Medication, Medication: Safety, Patient Safety
Ratwani RM, Savage E, Will A
Identifying electronic health record usability and safety challenges in pediatric settings.
To understand specific usability issues and medication errors in the care of children, the investigators analyzed 9,000 patient safety reports, made in the period 2012-17, from three different health care institutions that were likely related to EHR use. They found: the general pattern of usability challenges and medication errors were the same across the three sites; the most common usability challenges were associated with system feedback and the visual display; and the most common medication error was improper dosing.
AHRQ-funded; HS023701.
Citation: Ratwani RM, Savage E, Will A .
Identifying electronic health record usability and safety challenges in pediatric settings.
Health Aff 2018 Nov;37(11):1752-59. doi: 10.1377/hlthaff.2018.0699..
Keywords: Children/Adolescents, Electronic Health Records (EHRs), Health Information Technology (HIT), Medical Errors, Medication, Medication: Safety, Patient Safety, Children/Adolescents
Bates DW, Singh H
Two decades since To Err Is Human: an assessment of progress and emerging priorities in patient safety.
This paper comments on the progress made in improving patient safety since the 1999 report from The Institute of Medicine titled “To Err is Human” was published. This landmark report highlighted problem areas, and since then there has been a number of effective interventions to prevent hospital-acquired infections and improve medication safety. Additional areas for improvement have also been identified in the past two decades, including outpatient care, diagnostic, errors and the use of health information technology. The authors believe that electronic data developments can help increase patient safety even further.
AHRQ-funded; HS022087; HS017820.
Citation: Bates DW, Singh H .
Two decades since To Err Is Human: an assessment of progress and emerging priorities in patient safety.
Health Aff 2018 Nov;37(11):1736-43. doi: 10.1377/hlthaff.2018.0738..
Keywords: Adverse Drug Events (ADE), Adverse Events, Diagnostic Safety and Quality, Electronic Health Records (EHRs), Health Information Technology (HIT), Medical Errors, Medication, Medication: Safety, Patient Safety, Prevention
Pohl JM, Tanner C, Hamilton A
Medication safety after implementation of a commercial electronic health record system in five safety-net practices: a mixed methods approach.
This study, conducted in five safety-net practices, examined the impact of implementing a commercial electronic health records system on medication safety. The authors found 130 "true" drug-drug interaction (DDI) pairs, representing 149,087 visits and 62 providers, with the largest DDI categories being related to antihypertensive medications, which are often prescribed together. They found no significant differences between physicians and nurse practitioners on the rate of DDI pairs.
AHRQ-funded; HS017191.
Citation: Pohl JM, Tanner C, Hamilton A .
Medication safety after implementation of a commercial electronic health record system in five safety-net practices: a mixed methods approach.
J Am Assoc Nurse Pract 2014 Aug;26(8):438-44. doi: 10.1002/2327-6924.12089.
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Keywords: Medication: Safety, Medication, Electronic Health Records (EHRs), Health Information Technology (HIT), Adverse Drug Events (ADE), Adverse Events, Medical Errors, Patient Safety