Sharing skills in medication safety

After years of building capacity in medication safety within Metro North, Redcliffe Hospital’s Pharmacy Director is now assisting rural and regional hospitals.

Ann Whitaker has been the Director of Pharmacy at Redcliffe Hospital for five years and she says that medication safety is about getting things right.

“The right patient. The right drug. The right dose,” Ann said.

“It’s also about the systems that make the administration of medication as safe as possible.”

At Redcliffe Hospital, Ann and her pharmacy team have done a lot of work in recent years to improve medication safety and embed a strong medication safety culture across all disciplines.

“We’ve looked at everything from how we interview patients when they first come to hospital, what medication we prescribe, how medications are reviewed, how we administer medication to patients, how we store things, and how we communicate everything back to patients, carers and community health providers,” she said.

Ann said at Redcliffe Hospital, new technology had helped to improve some aspects of medication safety, including the arrival of Pyxis machines, and the hospital’s embrace of ieMR digital records last year.

“There’s a lot more reliance now on technology, as you would expect,” Ann said.

“Ultimately, whatever the technology used; everyone is responsible for patient safety. Everyone.”

Ann was invited to share her medication safety workshops with regional hospitals in 2023.

“It started with Longreach in 2023 — the Director of Pharmacy there was reviewing medication safety incidents and saw an opportunity to share knowledge.”

Ann says the Director of Pharmacy at Longreach Hospital invited her to deliver the series of workshops designed originally for Redcliffe Hospital staff, when it was still a paper-based facility.

“I ran three workshops there for nursing staff. Each had 10-15 nurses, ranging from nursing graduates through to CNCs,” she said.

“Two more trips west followed, the most recent to Mt Isa and North West Hospital and Health Service in March this year.

“Mt Isa, Cloncurry, Doomadgee, Julia Creek, Karumba, Mornington Island, Normanton – we had participants from right across North West HHS.

“We had around 60 participants for those workshops. It wasn’t just for nursing staff either, we had doctors, allied health and other pharmacists participate too.”

Ann said a big focus of her workshops in regional hospitals was around medication risks and common mistakes made in clinical settings.

“It’s about being aware of those risks, knowing the right questions to ask, and empowering staff from every discipline to act when something doesn’t feel right,” she said.