By Angela Hill

Med Rec introduced in Victoria Hospital

Oct 22, 2010 | 7:41 AM

Prince Albert Parkland Health Region is rolling out a procedure to provide better patient care.

Knowing what patient takes what medication, at what time, and in what dose, is an important part of patient care.

However when people come into hospital, they don’t always know what they are supposed to be taking.

Using the new electronic health files called the Pharmaceutical Information Program (PIP), health care providers in the region will be able to quickly reconcile all the medications their patients are on.

“It’ll save time and it will improve the patient experience because they’ll have better reconciliation of their medication throughout their hospital stay and it will be clearer for them up on discharge,” said Sharon Griffin, director of acute care services for the health region.

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“We certainly always made best attempts at gathering this information, it’s just that this is a smoother process, it will be more accurate and more up to date.”

When patients didn’t know all the drugs they were taking, medication reconciliation was done by nurses calling pharmacies and doctors’ offices. With people seeing more than one doctor and many filing prescriptions at different pharmacies, it was becoming timely to track down all the medications, said Sheila Cooper, the nursing unit manager of surgery at Victoria Hospital.

“Nursing time searching for the medication will be saved by this implement,” she said.

Level four at Victoria Hospital is one of the first places that PIP will be rolled out as part of the their Releasing Time to Care, lean strategy as PIP will both save nurses time and improve patient care.

“Hopefully the patients find that we are providing better care … when they go to leave at discharge we’ll be able to clearly tell them what they need to be on, what they don’t need to be on, so hopefully we can keep patients better informed,” Cooper said.

Health-care workers throughout the hospital are training until the end of October. During the next few months, PIP will be introduced in all the hospital wards.

Using PIP is one of Accreditation Canada’s required operational practices, meaning health facilities across the country are being asked to implement this system.

PIP has been piloted in Birchview Home, a long-term care facility in Birch Hills, and Victoria Hospital’s intensive care unit on patient admission. Both were successful.

ahill@rawlco.com