A significant piece of work was concluded in 2013 which focussed on measurement and evaluation across the medication safety programme, with an emphasis on the electronic medicines management (eMM) initiatives, a partnership between the Health Quality & Safety Commission (the Commission) and the National Health IT Board.
The project was independently undertaken for the Commission by Sapere Research Group, in conjunction with the National Institute for Health Innovation (NIHI) and the Centre for Health Systems in the Department of Preventative and Social Medicine at the University of Otago.
The project aimed to provide information that assisted the Commission to:
- Consider a framework for the sustainable, on-going measurement and evaluation of medication-related harm for the Medication Safety Programme.
- Form a judgement on the relative value of the current eMM initiatives, in terms of their likely impact on patient safety and their cost effectiveness, and
- Make decisions on future regional and national roll out of the eMM initiatives, by providing advice on implementation lessons and the change process.
The findings and recommendations from this project will continue to inform the development of the national medication safety programme. Two final reports are being made available so learnings from this project are shared with the sector. They are:
Summary Report
- Provides an overview of the project approach
- Outlines the process adopted
- Summarises key findings and recommendations
Framework for measuring medication-related harm
- Presents a framework for the measurement of medication-related harm
- Explains the approach taken to testing the application of this framework, using data from existing data collection systems, and provides the results of this analysis,
- Sets out the practical implications of implementing this framework.
The third report is not being publically released as it contains detailed and specific local site information relating to those DHBs participating in the eMM rollout of electronic prescribing and administration (ePA) and electronic medicine reconciliation (eMR). Summary findings are incorporated in the ‘Summary Report' referenced above.