eBroselow eliminates medication dosing errors in children, study shows
Raleigh, North Carolina (PRWEB) September 17, 2014 -- A research study conducted by the University of Kentucky and released this week by the Journal of Pediatric Pharmacology and Therapeutics has found that the use of eBroselow’s online system increased the accuracy of medication doses prepared during simulated pediatric emergencies by nearly 25 percent, and completely eliminated clinically significant errors.
The research also showed that use of the system, as compared to traditional processes, reduced the time required to prepare medication during an emergency.
The University of Kentucky study is the first peer-reviewed research focused on eBroselow’s medication safety system.
“This is truly a breakthrough in patient safety,” said Jim Broselow, M.D., the company’s co-founder and Chief Medical Officer. “The findings of the University of Kentucky study show that hospitals now have a proven product that can solve a long-standing medication dosing error problem.”
eBroselow addresses a major hospital safety concern: the prevalence of medication dosing errors during emergencies. One study that reviewed the charts of more than 1,500 children seen in the emergency department of a children’s hospital found that prescribing errors occurred in 10 percent of those charts. Another study revealed that during mock pediatric emergencies, 17 percent of medication orders were incomplete, and 16 percent of prepared doses were incorrect by at least 20 percent. Seven percent of those doses were incorrect by at least 50 percent.
With eBroselow, medical professionals can quickly determine the proper medicine doses for both adult and child patients based on weight, specific medical indication and other factors. The system also provides preparation and administration content for medications in an intuitive visual system.
eBroselow’s technology was first offered to hospitals in 2010. Nearly 300 hospitals and 7,000 physicians, nurses, pharmacists and EMS professionals in the United States and Canada have now adopted the system to improve patient safety.
The Study
The study, “Medication Preparation in Pediatric Emergencies: Comparison of a Bar Code-Enabled System and a Traditional Approach,” was conducted by Drs. Heather Whitehead, Robert J. Kuhn and Stephanie N. Baker-Justice in the Department of Pharmacy Practice and Science at Kentucky Children’s Hospital in Lexington. The purpose of the study was to compare accuracy and timeliness of medication preparation during pediatric emergencies when using eBroselow compared with standard dosing references.
The findings showed that eBroselow performed significantly better than the standard dosing references.
In addition to a dramatic increase in accuracy when using the eBroselow system, the study found a reduction of an average of eight minutes in the time needed to prepare medication. Likewise, nurses were able to accurately prepare medications without pharmacist consultations using eBroselow.
“That’s a big deal to any nurse who has to prepare medications in the middle of the night without the benefit of a full-time pharmacist,” Dr. Broselow said. “This system streamlines the dosing and administration process and improves accuracy; it’s exactly what healthcare professionals work toward every day.”
The study was conducted with 13 registered nurses in the emergency department who had pediatric advanced life support training within the past three years. Each nurse participated in two scenarios.
Each participant was assigned to either the intervention or control group during the first scenario and switched groups in the second scenario. Participants in the intervention group were allowed to use eBroselow after a 10-minute tutorial. Participants in the control group were allowed to use drug references normally available in the emergency department.
Each participant provided a total of 10 medication interventions as prompted by the simulation facilitator. All scenarios were video recorded to capture accuracy of medication prepared and dose.
ABOUT eBROSELOW
Dr. Jim Broselow invented eBroselow to standardize the administration of medications used during adult and pediatric emergencies—a process that is prone to substantial errors. The web and mobile-based medication reference tool serves as a double-check for doctors, nurses and pharmacists and removes the complicated math involved in many dosing decisions. It builds on another successful invention of Dr. Broselow’s: the Broselow Tape, which is a simple and effective color-coded tool that helps doctors estimate a child’s body weight from body height and provides proper dosing and airway information. For more information about eBroselow and its products, go to http://ebroselow.com.
Chris Turnbull, Neathawk Dubuque & Packett, http://ndp-agency.com, +1 (540) 345-5403 Ext: 124, [email protected]
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