If you are a care home manager, the thing you definitely don’t want is a medication error to compromise the health and safety of the residents and, eventually tarnish the reputation of the care home. Unfortunately, medication errors, despite being a serious problem, is quite common in health facilities across the UK. By having a system in place for checking these errors, you can streamline the medication administration process and avoid preventable medical mistakes. With caregivers reporting to you overwhelmed with a huge amount of responsibilities, you must be wondering where to begin. As we understand professional caregiving is no easy task, we have come with a few tips to help you with managing the medication process in your care home.
Here are a few things you can do to set medication administration in order:
- Have a process in place: Having a standard operating procedure in place can ensure that medicines are administered safely and effectively. The caregivers should be aware of the 6 Rs: right resident, right route, right medicine, right time, right dose, and resident’s right to refuse. Besides checking these 6 Rs before administering medicines, caregivers should also know what to do in different situations. For instance, if a resident is having a meal or is sleeping, the caregiver should come again. If the resident has complained about any side effects, the caregivers should formally record the matter.
- No disruption during the medicine round: Medication administration is just one of the many responsibilities that caregivers take care of. However, during the medicine round the caregiver should not be disturbed. Disruptions in the medicine round can let errors creep in. Give caregivers enough training and time to check the medicines correctly. Irregular staff breaks or shift changes can result in miscommunication, leading to errors.
- Record when medicines are given: Make a record of all the medicines that are being administered. It should be done in a way that if the shift changes, the other staff member is aware which medicine has been administered or which has been missed (if the resident was sleeping or had gone out). If a particular medicine has been stopped the caregiver must make a note of the reasons why.
- Be in touch with the pharmacy for inventory update: You don’t want your staff members to find out that certain medicines are out of stock during the medicine round. It is for the best that your care home has a process to make sure that the pharmacy is alerted before a particular medicine goes out of stock.
Switch to electronic MAR sheets today and reduce medication errors at your care homes
Electronic MAR is a software that will help you ensure medication is administered reliably at your care home. Here are a few things to know about electronic MAR sheets
- Alerts: The app will send alerts when the medicines are due. The alert will have all the details: resident’s name, medicine name, right route, right dose and the right time.
- Audit: As a care home manager you can access the monthly reports with the click of the buttons. You can audit whenever and wherever you want.
- Notes: It records all caregivers’ notes along with their names. As a care home manager, you will be able to fix accountability. As supervisors also receive alerts, you will get to know if a dose is missed on a real-time basis.
- Detailed reports: You don’t have to go through piles of paper to prepare monthly reports. You can generate detailed reports in seconds from medication data spanning days, weeks, months or even years.
Book a demo today and learn how eMAR can help your care home. Remember the app can be customised as per your care home’s specific needs.