Preventing Drug Errors Related to Caregiver Interruptions
Condition: Medication Administered in Error
Study type: Interventional

Summary: 
      Serious medication administration errors are common in hospitals and nurse's interruptions
      during medication preparation and administration is associated with errors. Various
      interventions were developed to help prevention of errors such as visual intervention.
      Investigators aimed to study the effect of a medication safety vest to reduce medication
      errors. The vest serves as a visible signal to inform others that the nurse is preparing and
      administering medications and should not be disturbed. Patients and visitors are provided
      with an informational flyer to inform them about the use of medication safety vests.

      The hypothesis is that the vest will reduce nurse's interruptions during medication
      preparation and administration, and ultimately reduce medication errors.

      The study is a randomized controlled trial in 30 care units of four hospitals in France. Each
      unit will be randomized in either the control group or the experimental group using the
      medication safety vest. Nurses of the unit will be selected at random to determine who will
      be observed during the administration rounds.The observation method will be used to evaluate
      the error rates in the 2 groups. The number of interruptions and error rates will be
      evaluated.
    

Detailed description: 
      Serious medication administration errors are common in hospitals. Significant association
      between medication administration errors rate and the frequency of nurse's interruptions was
      shown. The estimated risk of error without interruption during preparation and administration
      is 2.3% whereas it doubles with 4 or more interruptions.

      Various interventions were developed to help prevention of errors such as visual
      interventions and technology interventions.

      Investigators aimed to study the effect of a medication safety vest to reduce medication
      errors. The vest serves as a visible signal to inform others that the nurse is preparing and
      administering medications and should not be disturbed. On the back of the vest is written "Do
      not disturb me. I am preparing medications". Patients and visitors are provided with an
      informational flyer to inform them about the use of medication safety vests The hypothesis is
      that the vest will reduce nurse's interruptions during medication preparation and
      administration, and ultimately reduce medication errors.

      The study is a randomized controlled trial in 30 care units of four hospitals in France. Each
      unit will be randomized in either the control group or the experimental group using the
      medication safety vest. Nurses of the unit will be randomized to determine who will be
      observed during the administration rounds.The observation method will be used to evaluate the
      error rates in the 2 groups. The number of interruptions and error rates will be evaluated.
    

Intervention name(s): Medication safety vest
Intervention type(s): Device
Intervention description(s): The nurses preparing and administering medication will wear a medication safety vest. On the back of the vest, the sentance "Do not disturb me. I am preparing medications" is written to inform others professional, patients and visitors. A informational flyer will be put in the units to inform patients and visitors about the intervention.
Allocation: Randomized
Intervention model: Parallel Assignment
Masking: None (Open Label)
Primary purpose: Health Services Research
Keywords: Medication Errors/prevention & control; Nursing Staff, Hospital/organization & administration; Drug Therapy/nursing; Safety Management; Medication Systems, Hospital/organization & administration