Evaluating the accuracy of technicians and pharmacists in checking unit dose medication cassettes.
The accuracy rates of board-registered pharmacy technicians and pharmacists in checking unit dose medication cassettes in the inpatient setting at two separate institutions were examined. Cedars-Sinai Medical Center and Long Beach Memorial Medical Center, both in Los Angeles county, petitioned the C...
| Published in: | American Journal of Health-System Pharmacy Vol. 59; no. 12; pp. 1183 - 1189 |
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| Main Authors: | , , , , , |
| Format: | research tables/charts Journal Article |
| Published: |
Oxford University Press / USA
6/15/2002
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| Online Access: | View this record in EBSCOhost |
| fields | @attributes: recordID: 1 pdfLink: plink: https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=ccm&AN=106538790&site=ehost-live header: @attributes: shortDbName: ccm uiTerm: 106538790 longDbName: CINAHL Complete uiTag: AN controlInfo: bkinfo: dissinfo: jinfo: jid: 10792082 1X3 jtl: American Journal of Health-System Pharmacy issn: 10792082 maglogo: N pubinfo: dt: 6/15/2002 vid: 59 iid: 12 pid: 622 pub: Oxford University Press / USA artinfo: ui: 106538790 2009050513 10.1093/ajhp/59.12.1183 NLM12073859 106538790 ppf: 1183 ppct: 6 formats: fmt: @attributes: type: P tig: atl: Evaluating the accuracy of technicians and pharmacists in checking unit dose medication cassettes. aug: au: Ambrose PJ Saya FG Lovett LT Tan S Adams DW Shane R affil: Clinical Professor, Department of Clinical Pharmacy, School of Pharmacy, University of California San Francisco, San Francisco, CA sug: subj: Pharmacy Service Education Quality Assurance Education Certification Medication Systems Utilization Professional Competence Evaluation Pharmacy Technicians Pharmacists California Descriptive Statistics Confidence Intervals Comparative Studies Academic Medical Centers Logistic Regression Pretest-Posttest Design Audit Human ab: The accuracy rates of board-registered pharmacy technicians and pharmacists in checking unit dose medication cassettes in the inpatient setting at two separate institutions were examined. Cedars-Sinai Medical Center and Long Beach Memorial Medical Center, both in Los Angeles county, petitioned the California State Board of Pharmacy to approve a waiver of the California Code of Regulations to conduct an experimental program to compare the accuracy of unit dose medication cassettes checked by pharmacists with that of cassettes checked by trained, certified pharmacy technicians. The study consisted of three parts: assessing pharmacist baseline checking accuracy (Phase I), developing a technician-training program and certifying technicians who completed the didactic and practical training (Phase II), and evaluating the accuracy of certified technicians checking unit dose medication cassettes as a daily function (Phase III). Twenty-nine pharmacists and 41 technicians (3 of whom were pharmacy interns) participated in the study. Of the technicians, all 41 successfully completed the didactic and practical training, 39 successfully completed the audits and became certified checkers, and 2 (including 1 of the interns) did not complete the certification audits because they were reassigned to another work area or had resigned. In Phase II, the observed accuracy rate and its lower confidence limit exceeded the predetermined minimum requirement of 99.8% for a certified checker. The mean accuracy rates for technicians were identical at the two institutions (p = 1.0). The difference in mean accuracy rates between pharmacists (99.52%; 95% confidence interval [CI] 99.44-99.58%) and technicians, (99.89%; 95% CI 99.87-99.90%) was significant (p < 0.0001). Inpatient technicians who had been trained and certified in a closely supervised program that incorporated quality assurance mechanisms could safely and accurately check unit dose medication cassettes filled by other technicians. pubtype: Academic Journal doctype: research tables/charts Journal Article ougenre: Article language: English refInfo: holdings: @attributes: islocal: N |
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