URGENT - JCAHO Standard MM.4.10

[CAL/AAEM News Service]

URGENT - JCAHO Standard MM.4.10 
MUST RESPOND WITHIN TWO WEEKS... 
  
Source: AAEM (http://www.aaem.org)
Date: January 10, 2007

AAEM needs your help! 

Your leadership is very concerned about language currently proposed in 
JCAHO Standard MM.4.10. Currently it is mandated that all drugs 
administered on a non-urgent basis have a pharmacist review prior to 
being dispensed.  AAEM believes that there is no valid, scientific 
evidence that justifies prospective review by a pharmacist of 
medications ordered by an emergency physician.  Such a review does not 
decrease medication error rates and certainly does not prevent a nurse 
from inadvertently giving a drug to the wrong patient.  Adding such 
unnecessary complexity may actually increase the rate of errors in 
predictable and unpredictable ways. Further, the delay this process will 
create (having to wait for a pharmacist approval before a nurse can give 
the medication) will worsen emergency department crowding, which has 
already reached crisis levels according to a comprehensive Institute of 
Medicine study released in June 2006. 
  
Give the JCAHO feedback by January 24, 2007, about Standard MM.4.10 by 
completing their survey and explaining that prospective review of 
medications by a pharmacist does more harm than good.  Go to the 
website, 
http://www.jointcommission.org/AccreditationPrograms/CriticalAccessHospitals/Standards/FieldReviews/mm_stds_fr.htm


Reviewing the Standard and completing the "Field Review" takes
about 15 minutes, though it seems you may skip over sections you 
find irrelevant and record only what you believe is pertinent. 
  
Thank you! 

American Academy of Emergency Medicine 
555 E. Wells Street 
Suite 1100 
Milwaukee, WI 53202-3823 



Cyrus Shahpar & Brian Potts 
Managing Editors, CAL/AAEM News Service
University of California, Irvine

The CAL/AAEM Archives are available at: http://maillists.uci.edu/mailman/public/calaaem/



 
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