Errors occur on 8.4% of medication administration events

This would mean:

1 x resident administered medication 3 x a day = 84%chance of receiving a medication administrator error every

week and a 99.9% chance every month

In Managing and Administering Medication in Care Homes for Older People

It is suggested care home residents are prescribed an

average of 7-8 medications per person per day

Residents in care homes are commonly prescribed

multiple medications at the same

time, given their complex health conditions

Now consider that the primary tools

being used by the majority of care

home providers to manage their

residents’ medications still revolve

around paper-based systems with

significant limitations

It becomes very challenging to provide the

highest levels of safe and quality care,

while using a manual approach to

medication management

The medication management process within

a care homes is extremely complex

Providers are responsible for receiving,

administering and documenting large

volumes of medications on a daily basis

This process draws on information from

a range of sources and requires

involvement from numerous internal and

external healthcare professionals

Strengthening the

partnerships between the

doctors, pharmacies and

care homes facilities

Streamlining the workflows that support

medication administration in care homes

Enter:

Electronic Medication

Management

…improve medication

management processes

That’s not all!

Reduce Compliance Risk1

Not only do these

distractions negatively

impact staff productivity,

they can also lead to

serious compliance risks

including signature

omissions

Typically, the process of

administering medications

to residents takes place in

the midst of a lengthy,

demanding and disrupted

medication round

Configurations prevent staff from proceeding with

medication administration until a signature has been

recorded

Intuitive alerts prompt staff to log onto a

mobile device at the point of medication

administration, ensuring that the medications

to be administered within a given time period

are electronically tagged with a date, time and

signature

Eliminating signature omissions is a critical part of

maintaining compliance

It can be achieved INSTANTLY with the implementation of an EMM system

Right documentation

Right resident

Right medication

Right route

Right dose

Right time R’s

These safety alerts further support accreditation

requirements by enforcing the six R’s of correct

medication administration:

Staff are prompted to enter the reason

for why the PRN was administered

In instances where EMM integrates with

an electronic clinical system, this

information is automatically recorded within

a progress note to ensure more effective

evaluation of PRN medications

EMM also provides further safeguarding against

the compliance risks associated with the

administration of PRN ‘as required’ medications

2Increased efficiency and productivity during medication rounds

This process is not only cumbersome,

but can easily increase the opportunity

for discrepancies and errors

Centralised, electronic medication administration

records (eMAR) also ensure staff focus on only the

specific medications due to be administered within

a given time period

EMM systems offer a tangible boost to efficiency

and productivity by saving staff from manually

sorting through paper-based medication records to

determine what medication is due at what time

3Reduced pressure on resources

Traditional medication management

processes often requires Registered or

Enrolled Nurses (RN) to manage hundreds, if

not thousands, of medications for residents

EMM reduces the pressure of these

tasks by providing a common electronic

record that can be accessed by all

authorised staff within a care home

4 Enhanced governance and decision making

This helps care home providers to ensure that their

organisation’s medication administration processes and

records are always completed to the highest standard

of quality

Management can easily and quickly obtain access to

data in real-time including medications administered,

medications missed, PRNs and more

With functionality to electronically capture data and

centralise this information, EMM also increases

visibility of medication management processes

throughout an entire organisation

This electronic data can also be analysed to improve

decision making and resident health outcomes

5Streamlined communications between care home and pharmacy

CHUM study found 50% of all communication-

related medication errors occurred between the

care home and the pharmacy

EMM systems streamline the documentation

requirements of medication management by

facilitating electronic communication with the

pharmacy

6 Improved experience for care and nursing staff

The entire social care sector faces challenges

with recruiting and retaining qualified staff

These challenges are compounding with a shrinking

workforce, and increasing workloads for those who

remain in the industry

How?

Staff are freed from the intensive

documentation and administrative duties and

given more time to focus on providing safe

and high quality care

When implemented correctly, electronic

systems that provide critical clinical and

medication information at the point of care play

a critical role in:

Reducing system-wide inefficiencies,

compliance risks and pressure on staff

Improving resident safety

www.icarehealth.co.uk

iCareHealth is a social care

software provider that

specialises in electronic

medication management

www.icarehealth.co.uk

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