Minimising risk in RACF’s

BASED on PDL reporting data, approximately 10% of all incidents involve a Dose Administration Aid (DAA), with many relating to residential aged care facilities (RACF).

Risks associated with DAA supply may be increased for RACF clients. Residents are typically of an older demographic with multiple conditions and medications. DAA dosing is undertaken by various facility staff which can reduce error detection through a lack of familiarity with the regular medicines. Also, there is typically an absence of direct pharmacist interaction with clients.

Other considerations regarding medication safety include difficulties requesting and receiving current medicine profiles and prescriptions from prescribers. Hence, medicine changes initiated in hospital or the RACF may not be effectively communicated to the pharmacy or instituted in a timely manner.

PDL urges pharmacists providing DAAs to have reliable procedures in place to ensure profiles and prescriptions are checked on a regular basis for currency and accuracy. Furthermore, any dosing changes are to be documented in a manner that ensures the prescriber is informed the changes have been implemented.

The other common incident is a packing error. There are a range of error types. However PDL’s advice is that a consistent and thorough checking process against the medicine profile is most reliable as a means to reduce this risk.