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Drug libraries can help mitigate the risk of medication errors by applying safety limits to infusion therapies.

Within the NHS we have seen that the introduction of e-prescribing. The introduction of this technology has had a huge effect on reducing the proportion of medication errors at prescription, from 39% of all medication errors in 2015 to 8.5% in 2019.¹

In 2018 medication errors at the point of care accounted for 78.6% of all reported medication errors.¹

B. Braun’s Space^plus platform combines intuitive and clear infusion devices with DoseGuard Dose Error Reduction Software to help mitigate the risk of medication errors. 

Sources of Medication Errors

A drug library is an important layer of protection for clinical staff and patients. The benefits can only be realised if the limits on the drug library are appropriate and if clinical staff are using the drug library effectively. To ensure compliance starts high and remains high, it is essential that the drug library is fit for purpose and continues to be updated. B. Braun’s DoseGuard software facilitates a flexible approach to building drug libraries that enables strong alignment to hospital requirements. To further support medication administration safety, the pump default is set to using the drug library.

The DoseTrac^plus application provides a broad range of real time infusion data sets. These can provide insights into where the drug library has supported the prevention of potential medication errors. 

In addition to this, the reports can also provide insights into any actions that may be required to maintain high compliance and effectivity to support patient safety. The information generated by DoseTrac^plus reports can help identify where targeted education may be required to aid clinical staff in the correct use of the drug library.

As practice evolves within the clinical environment, drug libraries also need to be updated to ensure they remain properly aligned to pharmacy policy and clinical practice. DoseTrac^plus reports can be analysed to assess and identify areas in which drug library optimisation may be required. 

The ability to connect Space^plus infusion devices to a hospitals network enables the remote upload of drug libraries, configuration files, and disposable files. Remote uploads are significantly faster than physically locating and updating each pump and can be done without interruption to clinical workflows. This yields resource efficiency gains and most importantly can help improve governance by greatly reducing the time in which the hospital has multiple live versions. 

• Enables the hospital to define medication and therapy standards for different patient profiles and care units.
• Can define and visualise individualised safety-limits to support the prevention of potential dosing errors.
• Facilitates the remote upload of drug library data via the hospital’s network without interrupting clinical workflows.
• Provides infusion data insights through DoseTracplus reports.
   

^Reference

^{1. Elliott R, Camacho E, Campbell F, Jankovic D, Martyn St James M, Kaltenthaler E, Wong R, Sculpher M, Faria R, (2018). Prevalence and Economic Burden of Medication Errors in The NHS in England. Rapid evidence synthesis and economic analysis of the prevalence and burden of medication error in the UK.  Policy Research Unit in Economic Evaluation of Health and Care Interventions. Universities of Sheffield and York. LINK}

^{* compared to previous range of B. Braun Space pumps}