A suitable tool that ensures correct pharmacological monitoring processes at health centers should meet the standards set by the Council for General Health of Mexico for the certification of Mexican hospitals. Especially the essential Medication Management and Use (MMU) standard M.M.U. 5.1 set by the Joint Commission International.
Tools that help certification processes in Mexican hospitals should be able to evaluate the suitability of the drug, its dose and administration method, detect whether there are therapeutic dualities, allergies or sensitivities to the drug in question and whether there could be real or potential interactions between that medication and another and/or foods. It is also advisable to take the patient’s weight into account plus any other physiological information and to observe whether side-effects occur once the medication is prescribed – such as a renal or hepatic warning signs. But in addition to technical questions the tool that will achieve the hospital’s certification must also have its software updated periodically in order to check for interactions between drugs and allergies to drugs.
Bearing these premises in mind, the Vademecum Data Solutions pharmacological information system (from Vademecum Internacional) was selected by the Coordinator of High Specialty Medical Units of the Mexican Institute of Social Security (IMSS) as the electronic resource that best met the requirements of the M.M.U. 5.1 Standard, and the body has provided several hospitals with the tool when certification was requested.
This is the case with the San José private hospital in Ciudad Obregón in the state of Sonora. At this hospital, the Medical Certification Coordinator is Doctor Karla Patricia Rentería who said that they decided to purchase the Vademecum tool to use at the hospital because they were undergoing the certification process and needed a program that met the standards for medication suitability that could carry out reconciliation processes in a flexible manner.
“We found that the Vademecum program best fulfilled the quality standards required and we’ve been using it for a year now,” said Doctor Rentería. She also noted that the tool helped significantly in the crucial aspects of the certification criteria in achieving accreditation for both the San José Hospital in Ciudad Obregón and the San José Hospital in Hermosillo, another care center from the same group, which also uses the application.
“One of the things that I liked the most about the solution is that Vademecum Data Solutions are useful for almost every point described by the M.M.U. 5.1 standard of the Joint Commission, so we felt that it was a good tool for implementing and improving processes of prescription suitability and reconciliation. They do not count with many human resources so the help of IT tools in indispensable,” explained the Medical Certification Coordinator at the San José Hospital.
Interactions and Side-Effects: the most important aspects
Doctor Rentería highlighted the interaction and side-effect functions as being the most important benefits of Vademecum Data Solutions: “This tool shows the interactions and the risks of the medication as well as offering alternatives and shows whether side-effects have been detected in clinical pathology or laboratory testing and also covers allergies to medications.”
For this reason, the doctor said that the pharmacological information system is useful in both public and private hospitals. “I have also had the chance to work in public health and tools like this are very much needed as the volume of patients at public centers is high. Risks related to medication would be avoided,” she said.
The doctors and pharmacists at San José Hospital in Ciudad Obregón have now incorporated the Vademecum tool into their work routine and a good example of that is Doctors using the application every day with each patient that enters the hospital. “Vademecum Data Solutions is now part of our daily procedures at the hospital, from the moment the patient is admitted and for each change of medical instructions,” Dr. Rentería said.
From the moment the patient is admitted a Vademecum Data Solutions record is opened for them containing their sex, weight, size, allergies and pathologies and once the process is finished, possible interactions are detected. If they are present, the doctor in question is informed and a change of instruction is made, as is a new suitability profile. Occasionally there are medications that aren’t yet in the application – which is constantly growing – however, Doctor Rentería doesn’t regard this as a problem as they are in constant contact with the supplier so they can communicate any incident or lack of information. “The answer from the supplier is immediate and we can see that the medication has been added immediately,” said the specialist.
Investing in quality and safety: the right choice
Investment in tools like this offers benefits for hospital centers as they use the resource and achieve improvements in the quality and safety of its prescriptions and thus provide better care for the patient. In the experience of San José Hospital in Ciudad Obregón, in the year that it has been using the Vademecum application several interactions have been detected and after a risk-benefit analysis, instructions have been withdrawn leading to reduced costs as risks of this nature have legal implications.
Without a doubt, having programs that provide quality and safety in prescription processes doesn’t just save time for the clinical staff at the hospital during these procedures and improve the patient’s safety but also leads to fundamental good practice for centers seeking certification.
