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Parkview Medical Center
Pueblo, Colorado

Patient Safety Success Story:
Safety at the Bedside: Handheld Technology to Improve Medication Administration

Submitted by:
Eileen Dennis, RN
Chief Nursing Officer

Parkview Medical Center’s patient safety success story was years in the making.

Parkview had always placed it support behind its nurses to insure that medication is administered to patients safely and effectively at bedside. Focusing on that issue in 2005, Parkview organized a multidisciplinary medication administration team with representations from pharmacy, nursing, information systems, and administration. The team went through the medication process and realized that the last place to stop a medication error was at patient bedside.

But, Eileen Dennis, RN, Chief Nursing Officer identified that the nurses had no way of knowing if an error had occurred earlier in the process. Dennis pointed out that there were questions nurses can't answer at bedside and the questions were endless. The team wondered, "What don't nurses know, and how will they learn it?" Technology had to be a part of the answer. But the team learned that the technology chosen is only good if you know how to use it. These were challenges the Parkview team set out to solve.

Parkview implemented a bar code point of care solution to help eliminate medication errors and help ensure that each patient is receiving the five rights of medication safety- right patient, right drug, right dose, right route and right time.

Parkview's story is one of teamwork, leadereship support, the meeting challenges head-on, implementing and updating technology, continuting to finding innovative ways of educating staff and developing proceedures to help keep patients safe from harm everyday.

Read More: PDF of Parkview Medical Center Patient Safety Success Story

(Article courtsey of the Nov/Dec 2008 issue of PS&QH.)

About Parkview Medical Center

Founded in 1923, Parkview Medical Center in Pueblo, Colorado, offers general acute healthcare and behavioral health specialty services. As a private, non-profit organization, Parkview is licensed for 305 beds and provides a full range of healthcare services including the region’s most experienced, certified Level II Trauma Center and the region’s first certified Stroke Center. Parkview Medical Center is the leader in cardiac, women’s, emergency, and neurological services as well as behavioral health programs. As a vital healthcare source, Parkview’s service area includes Pueblo County and 14 surrounding counties, which together represent 350,000 total lives.

Parkview Medical Center is the largest non-government, nonprofit, private sector employer in Pueblo County with more than 2,000 employees and provides a skilled medical staff of over 300 physicians. The impact of our workforce triggers a strong impact on the community as Parkview’s annual payroll contributes $78 million to the economy.

For more details, please visit www.parkviewmc.org.