DMAIC Application to Reduce Medication Errors in a Specialized Pharmacy Process

Abstract

Medication errors can have serious consequences for patients, and medication safety is essential to pharmaceutical care. Insight is needed into the vulnerability of the working process at specialized pharmacies in order to identify what causes error incidents, so the system can be improved to enhance patient safety. It is important to identify the causes of error incidents, so improvement can be initiated. More often, it is the actions of individuals that are considered the sole cause of error. However, two approaches to the problem of human fallibility exist: the person and the system. Medication errors are one of the major causes of deaths and injuries of thousands of patient every year in US, contributing to soaring healthcare costs. The purpose of this research is to examine what has been done to deal with medical error problems in a specialized pharmacy that works with several medications for chronic diseases, by using a DMAIC methodology. Key Terms - DMAIC Improvement, Medication Errors, Safety, Specialized Pharmacy.