NCT03062852

Preventing Drug Errors Related to Caregiver Interruptions

Prévention Des Erreurs médicamenteuses liées Aux Interruptions de tâches Des Soignants Lors de la préparation et de l'Administration Des médicaments : Essai contrôlé randomisé Multicentrique en Clusters

• Status: Completed
• Phase: N/A
• Study type: Interventional
• Enrollment: 15,000 (actual)
• Sponsor: Assistance Publique - Hôpitaux de Paris · Academic / Other
• Sex: All
• Age: 18 Years – 60 Years
• Healthy volunteers: Not accepted

Summary

Serious medication administration errors are common in hospitals and nurse's interruptions during medication preparation and administration is associated with errors. Various interventions were developed to help prevention of errors such as visual intervention. Investigators aimed to study the effect of a medication safety vest to reduce medication errors. The vest serves as a visible signal to inform others that the nurse is preparing and administering medications and should not be disturbed. Patients and visitors are provided with an informational flyer to inform them about the use of medication safety vests. The hypothesis is that the vest will reduce nurse's interruptions during medication preparation and administration, and ultimately reduce medication errors. The study is a randomized controlled trial in 30 care units of four hospitals in France. Each unit will be randomized in either the control group or the experimental group using the medication safety vest. Nurses of the unit will be selected at random to determine who will be observed during the administration rounds.The observation method will be used to evaluate the error rates in the 2 groups. The number of interruptions and error rates will be evaluated.

Detailed description

Serious medication administration errors are common in hospitals. Significant association between medication administration errors rate and the frequency of nurse's interruptions was shown. The estimated risk of error without interruption during preparation and administration is 2.3% whereas it doubles with 4 or more interruptions. Various interventions were developed to help prevention of errors such as visual interventions and technology interventions. Investigators aimed to study the effect of a medication safety vest to reduce medication errors. The vest serves as a visible signal to inform others that the nurse is preparing and administering medications and should not be disturbed. On the back of the vest is written "Do not disturb me. I am preparing medications". Patients and visitors are provided with an informational flyer to inform them about the use of medication safety vests The hypothesis is that the vest will reduce nurse's interruptions during medication preparation and administration, and ultimately reduce medication errors. The study is a randomized controlled trial in 30 care units of four hospitals in France. Each unit will be randomized in either the control group or the experimental group using the medication safety vest. Nurses of the unit will be randomized to determine who will be observed during the administration rounds.The observation method will be used to evaluate the error rates in the 2 groups. The number of interruptions and error rates will be evaluated.

Conditions

• Medication Administered in Error

Interventions

Type	Name	Description
DEVICE	Medication safety vest	The nurses preparing and administering medication will wear a medication safety vest. On the back of the vest, the sentance "Do not disturb me. I am preparing medications" is written to inform others professional, patients and visitors. A informational flyer will be put in the units to inform patients and visitors about the intervention.

Timeline

• Start date: 2017-03-15
• Primary completion: 2018-04-17
• Completion: 2018-04-17
• First posted: 2017-02-23
• Last updated: 2020-11-03

Locations

1 site across 1 country: France