Patient Safety & Quality Assurance

Terms/Definitions: 

  • Medication Error: an preventable medication event that has the potential to lead to medication misuse or patient harm

  • Quality Improvement plan: a set of standards developed by the management of an organization to improve processes and ensure high quality patient care

  • MedWatch: the FDAs online voluntary reporting system for adverse drug reactions → anyone can report

  • Root cause analysis: a problem solving method used by pharamcies to determine the cause of medication errors and suggest methods for error prevention

  • Non-sterile compounding: follows the standards set by the USP 795

  • Sterile compounding following the standards set by USP 797 → includes medications administered through injection, IV, intrathecal, or ocular administration

  • Hazardous medications: should be compounded using biological safety cabinets or laminar flow hoods

Pharmaceutical Balances: 

Class III Torsion Balances: typically seen in pharmacies

Electronic balances: usually only used in pharmacies that do alot of compounding

Analytical balances: SUPER ACCURATE, used to measure small amounts of material → typically in research facilities

Infusion Pumps & Syringe Drivers/Pumps:

  • infusion pumps are used to deliver large volumes of bagged fluids to a patient

  • Syringe drivers/pumps deliver small volumes of fluid to a patient directly from a compatible disposable syringe

Medication Packaging: 

  • Nitroglycerin, furosemide, and doxycycline are in dark colored packaging because they are sensitive to light

  • Polypropylene is commonly used cuz its impenetrable to water and gases

    • used in bottles, eye drops, and ear drop bottles

  • Polyvinyl chloride (PVC) is used to package infusion fluids

Pharmacy technicians CANNOT: 

  • provide medical advice or OTC recommendations to patients

  • receive a new verbal or telephone prescription order

  • perform a clinical review of a prescription order or medication summary

  • discuss clinical interventions with the prescriber

  • perform a drug utilization reivew

  • counsel a patient regarding an adverse event, drug interactions, or medication adherenece 

  • perform accuracy checks and final verifications or prescription orders (varies by the state)

  • Transfer prescriptions to another pharmacy (can receive but not give transfer information)

  • administer immunizations (diffes by the state)