Drug Tracker Reduces Errors in Hospitals

New software promises to help hospital pharmacists track, analyze, and reduce the occurrence and costs of medication errors. The system is designed to improve processes and patient safety while lowering costs of care.

The system is called the Excalibur Pharmacy Safety Net and based on a relational database with reporting and trending capabilities called the Excalibur Patient Safety Net. The Excalibur Pharmacy Safety Net allows pharmacists to enter information such as drug names and therapeutic classifications as well as error categorization (outcomes), medication error types, adverse drug interaction types, and other categories. It also links cost-of-care information to medication errors, enabling pharmacists to justify a technologic investment by providing a measurable return on investment by reducing errors.

Hospital-based medication errors continue to be a serious problem, said David Spencer, CEO of Safety-Centered Solutions, Inc. (Tampa, FL, USA), the developer. While Excalibur Patient Safety Net has proven to be very helpful on a hospital-wide basis, pharmacists were looking for a program to help them track medication errors, adverse drug reactions, and pharmacy-related service delays.