Improving medication safety

Transcription

1 Improving medication safety Information for patients and carers To improve medicines safety it is crucial to be able to identify medicines related patient safety incidents such as medicines incidents, errors and adverse drug reactions. As a service user or carer, you may be the first to know when something is not right with your medication. It may look different, you may notice adverse effects or without the correct medication you may notice signs of relapse. It is crucial that you inform a healthcare professional if this occurs. Promoting hope and wellbeing together

2 Contents Medicines incidents How can I Identify a medication error or incident? Examples of medication incidents 5 What will we do to support you? 7 3 What should you do if you take your medicines incorrectly? 6 Adverse Drug Reactions How can I identify a side effect or adverse reaction to medication? 6 What is the yellow card scheme? 6 What we will do to support you? 7 Raising awareness amongst healthcare professionals about medicines related patient safety incidents is crucial to enable us to work together as a team and improve your safety and the safety of others. 2 West London Mental Health NHS Trust

3 How can I identify a medication error or incident? Check the medicines before leaving the hospital or pharmacy: Open the bag and check all the labels Ensure all the labels have your name on them Check that all the medicines you are expecting are present How to check your medications: Check that the label is stuck onto the correct box of medication Check the medicines inside the box match the label Check you have the correct amount of medication Check the expiry date If medicines are different or missing - check with a healthcare professional immediately Be an expert in your own medicines: Ask questions about your medicines Speak to professionals if you feel you have been given the wrong medication Always inform a healthcare professional about adverse effects Improving medication safety 3

4 When should I speak to my pharmacist? If you are unsure about what medicines you take, the doses and/or the reason why you take them If you want to discuss the right medicine for you The pharmacist can provide you with up to date information Talking to the pharmacist, doctor or nurse about your medications before you leave will help reduce the risk of taking home the wrong medicines. Medications may sometimes look different due to different brands, however if unsure how to tell if it is the correct medication you have been given - confirm this with a healthcare professional. Always inform the doctors, nurses and pharmacists at each contact, if you have any allergies to medicines, and what reaction happens when you have these medicines.! When buying medications from a pharmacy always check with the pharmacist whether they may interact with any medicines you are currently taking 4 West London Mental Health NHS Trust

5 Examples of Medicines Incidents The correct medication is not given on time You are given the wrong medication You may be given another patient s medication The directions on the label may not be correct The medication may be expired The label outside may not match what is in the box. The formulation may be different for example modified release instead of immediate release. If you notice something about your medicines that is not correct inform a healthcare professional immediately.! What we will do to support you? As well as providing the correct medication and doing monitoring to ensure you have had no adverse effects. We will also report it onto our incident reporting system to ensure that as a Trust we learn from these incidents and continue to improve medicines safety. On some wards we may be able to assess how you take your medications prior to discharge through the self-administration programme. Improving medication safety 5

6 How can I identify a side effect or adverse reaction to medications? An adverse drug reaction is where you may have a side effect to a medication when it is used at normal prescribed doses. If you or the person you care for have felt different after having medication, experienced side effects that have been unbearable or ever stopped medication due to side effects, it is crucial that you inform a healthcare professional or your mental health team. We may be able to reduce the dose, change the medication or give you something that can counteract the side effect. If it is a rare side effect or a serious side effect we may ask you to report to the national Yellow Card Scheme which records side effects of medication. What is the Yellow Card Scheme? The yellow card scheme is a way for you to report any side effects you may experience from your medicines. Yellow cards are available from your pharmacy, GP, or online and you can fill these out and send them off to the yellow card scheme where they keep a record of all side effects reported for all medicines. By reporting to the national yellow card scheme you are helping to keep other patients safe. 6 West London Mental Health NHS Trust

7 It identifies suspected side effects of medications that may not have previously been known and also where a certain side effect is more common than previously thought by the manufacturer. It is simple and easy and you can report an adverse drug reaction to a medication even if you are uncertain whether it was the medicine that caused it. You can report a suspected adverse drug reaction via: Through the smart phone Yellow card MHRA app A paper form from your pharmacy or GP. What we will do to support you? We will discuss side effects and adverse effects of medicines before starting the new medications. We will monitor side effects and ask you about any side effects as well as monitoring blood tests, side effect rating scales, blood pressure, pulse, ECGs. We will support you to report to us and to the yellow card scheme when you are having side effects. Where side effects cannot be managed we will consider different medications or a dose reduction. Improving medication safety 7

8 If you need this information in another format, such as Braille, large print, Easy Read or another language, please ask a member of staff. If you have questions or concerns about any of our services, please contact the patient advice and liaison service (PALS) on or pals@wlmht.nhs.uk. You can give feedback about any of our services at or on Switchboard Website wlmht.nhs.uk 24/7 24 hour helpline (single point of access) communications@wlmht.nhs.uk WLMHT Month 2016