Awards Ceremony — 2005

The 2005 recipient and finalists of the Award for Excellence in Medication-Use Safety were formally recognized at an invitation-only luncheon held during the 2005 ASHP Midyear Clinical Meeting in Las Vegas, Nevada. More than 150 pharmacy professionals gathered at the Las Vegas Convention Center on December 4, 2005, to see Evanston Northwestern Healthcare (ENH) receive a $50,000 award and to recognize the two finalists, St. Francis Hospital and Health Centers and Sutter Medical Center, Sacramento. Attendees were also treated to the premier of a special video presentation that featured footage from each site and interviews with key members of the multidisciplinary teams that implemented their winning medication safety initiatives.

ENH, located in Evanston, Illinois, created a completely electronic health record system for use in an acute care and ambulatory setting. ENH implemented the system in its 3 hospitals and 60-plus physician offices, and required every physician and clinician to use it. This resulted in improved patient safety by eliminating problems associated with illegible orders; accessibility to the right patient data at the right time for all physicians, clinicians and administrators; and assurance that the information and coded data in the record is accurate.
Since implementation, ENH has experienced a 100% elimination of all transcription-related medication errors; a 70% decrease in delayed administration of medications to patients; a 20% decrease in omitted medication administration; and a 50% reduction for time from order to administration of first-dose antibiotics.

St. Francis Hospital and Health Centers in Beech Grove, Indiana, the first finalist, commissioned a Medication Event Decision Support (MEDS) Team to develop a strategic plan for medication safety. The team went about building a “culture of safety” in St. Francis, promoting a non-punitive culture for sharing information and lessons learned; developing a safety reporting system; and fostering multidisciplinary teamwork. Major initiatives included instituting a zero-tolerance policy for use of abbreviations related to insulin orders and determining new ways to use existing technology to improve medication safety and communications.

Sutter Medical Center Sacramento (SMCS) in California, the second finalist, developed an Emergency Drug Sheet System to define all concentrations of vasoactive medications and standardize procedures for all aspects related to medication use, including prescribing, preparing, administering, dispensing and storing. The sheet is used by all clinicians for all patients, regardless of age, size or location in the 500-bed tertiary care hospital. The system eliminated manual math calculations, a major source of errors and delays, from the prescribing, preparing and administering steps in the medication-use process. SMCS developed a software program that prints the single-page, patient-specific reference sheet; the program adjusts to the specific patient, eliminating the need for the clinician to adjust to multiple systems in different patient care areas. The sheet can be printed from any patient care computer by entering a name and weight. The result has meant faster and safer preparation and delivery of vasoactive medications for neonatal and pediatric patients, allowing clinicians to focus on other clinical issues instead of mathematical calculations at critical periods in patient care.