Reducing missed medications in surgical patients

Abstract

Elective surgical patients need accurate drug charts to reduce missed medication doses, decreasing the chance of peri-operative complications. The quality improvement project described in this article used four interventions to improve the percentage of missed medication doses. A driver diagram was produced to interrogate the current pathway which highlighted multiple interventions, including changes to elective pro formas, the initial clerking process and nurse-based prescribing. Once implemented, a plan-do-study-act (PDSA) cycle was completed as per NHS Improvement guidelines. Overall, missed medication dose percentage decreased from 9.8% to 0% after the interventions. Two of these changes have been deemed sustainable and have been integrated into elective patient pathways, improving both patient safety and streamlining surgical elective patient services. This project highlights the importance of prescribing practice in a multidisciplinary team. Simple changes to established systems allow for better patient care, and the authors' project provides evidence that empowering nursing staff to take the lead in the medication management of patients can reduce the likelihood of negative outcomes in a patient's admission.