Medication Incident Learning & Prevention Bundles
MiST developed learning from medication incidents has focused on reporting and the identification of harm events using the MERP classification system.
As of February 2017;
5 paediatric hospitals/services are regularly reporting MERP data to the MiST collaborative (Leicester, Manchester, Birmingham, Nottingham & Southampton).
Reported data from 2016 for these 5 centres identified;
- There were 2301 reported medication incidents captured
- This was across approximately ¼ million paediatric patient bed days
- 98% were associated with no harm being experienced by the patient
- Of the 2% associated with harm occurring, there were no deaths and the harm experienced was temporary
- Harm incidents were mainly due to a lack of an adequate preventative support structure or an existing process not being followed
- Harm was mostly due to;
- Medication prescribing inaccuracies or the omission of regular medications when either arriving at hospital or moving between wards
- A failure to reduce the medication dose when renal or hepatic impairment was present
Further details can be found here: MERP Combined Data – Feb 2017
If you have examples of care bundles or excellence in your trust which address the above harm themes, please get in touch so we can share the learning. We are particularly looking for preventative systems & structures which move away from ‘staff informed’ and demonstrate greater effectiveness and robustness.
Are you collecting MERP data or interested in getting started – please e-mail so we can include your anonymous data. Struggling with your MERP data? Try our new MERP tool to make collection and analysis easier.
A wide range of further resources supporting paediatric medication safety can be found on the MedsIQ site.