Page 25 - APP Collaboration - Assessing the Risk (Part Two)
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SVMIC Advanced Practice Provider Collaboration: Assessing the Risk
duplications (brand and generic), strength/dosage changes
(taking a 5mg and a 10mg), discontinued medication they forgot
to remove from their pill reminders, and other preventable
errors that could be caught at the bedside. It is imperative to
review every medication by name, strength, dosage form, and
instructions. Do this with over-the-counter products as well at
each encounter. Most patients are under the care of multiple
healthcare professionals, requiring communication with other
treating providers to correlate therapies.
Providers have a primary duty to warn patients about the risks
and complications of prescribed medications. While legal
arguments have been made that the drug manufacturer should
be responsible for this duty to warn, courts continue to hold
physicians at least partially accountable.
Medication Safety in EHR
Verify accuracy of allergies at each encounter or make a
notation of no allergies. If using dropdown boxes from which to
select medications and/or dosages, use care to verify that the
correct medication and correct dose have been selected before
“entering” the information into the e-Prescribing system.
Ideally, the ordering provider should enter the original
medication order in the EHR. If your practice allows licensed
professionals to assist the providers by entering medication
orders, great caution must be exercised when using dropdown
boxes in order to avoid selecting an incorrect medication, or
dosage, and the source of the authorization for the medication
order should always be documented.
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