CME: Successful Strategies for Addressing Medication Safety Hot Topics - Geriatrics - ACPE

ACCREDITATION EXPIRED: September 26, 2015

Activity Description / Statement of Need:

In an effort to improve health care quality by fostering collaboration, a consortium of Medication Safety Officers from ASMSO have agreed to work together to enhance the knowledge of, and leading to a reduction in medication administration errors and readmission rates in acute care hospitals.

Why have those particular patient populations been singled out as worthy of attention?  The literature suggests that, in each case, they continue to be high risk; errors are more frequent and the potential for catastrophic consequence is higher in these patient populations relative to the general adult population.

• The Beers Criteria for potentially inappropriate medication use in older adults was updated recently (2012), and healthcare providers as a whole are not likely aware of changes since the previous update (in 2003).

Taken together, these observations from the literature and recent guideline updates suggest that gaps in practice exist in these patient populations – gaps that the proposed learning activities will attempt to bridge.

In this online free CME / CE program , the presentations will be conducted using a case study format identifying areas of safety that have been successful based upon each of the practice areas noted.  These presentations will achieve objectives including; Identify factors of the patient population that increase the risk for medication errors, discuss risk reduction strategies for the particular patient population that can be applied to the medication-use process, completing, development of a list of root causes of medication administration errors, determining the economic cost to the system of these errors, development of data collection protocols, and an effort in the participating hospitals to utilize this information to reduce medication administration errors at their facilities.

Agenda:

Introduction, Disclosures

The population at a glance

•           Who are the elderly?

•           Elderly medication use statistics

Key concepts

•           Preventable causes of drug-related problems

•           Drug-specific risk factors

•           Polypharmacy

•           Altered pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics

Medication errors in elderly hospitalized patients

•           Incidence and definitions

•           The role of medication reconciliation

•           Risk reduction strategies

Case studies

Putting it all together: best practices, summary, and conclusions

Target Audience:

Healthcare professionals including: geriatricians, mid-level practitioners working in acute care hospitals and other healthcare settings, medication safety officers, staff and clinical pharmacists, and pharmacists who otherwise have an interest in geriatric care or whose practice involves geriatric patients.

Commercial Support Disclosure: This program is supported by  educational grants from Boehringer Ingelheim and Hospira.

Release Date: September 26, 2013 -- Expiration Date: September 26, 2015

Faculty: Marilyn Bulloch, PharmD

Agenda

Learning Objectives

Accreditation

Faculty Disclosure and Resolution of COI

Instructions

System Requirements