Reference no: EM133723720

Case: Select a state or federal law or regulation related to patient safety that has been implemented within the last five years requiring hospitals or any other health care organizations to change the way they manage the delivery of care. Discuss the changes that have occurred because of this law or regulation. Additionally, discuss the technology associated with either your selected law/regulation or a similar one. Are there ethical dilemmas that have resulted from technology changes when delivering care to patients or patient safety? Explain the dilemmas and how they might be resolved.

The California Senate Bill (SB) 1254 went into effect on January 1, 2019. The California SB 1254 mandates that pharmacy personnel at acute hospitals with more than 100 beds get a high-risk patient's drug profile before admitting them (Tu, et al., 2023). SB 1254 was introduced by Senator Jeffrey Stone, Pharm D., to advance pharmacy practice and patient safety in California (California Society of Health System Pharmacists, 2018). When SB 1254 was passed it was critical to patient safety and it was the first bill in the United States that recognized the pharmacy as a responsible body for obtaining the admission medication profile. The research of the California Society of Healthsystem Pharmacists shows that medication errors can be decreased by 80% when prescription lists for high-risk patients are obtained by pharmacists or skilled technicians (California Society of Health System Pharmacists, 2018).

Researchers from Cedars-Sinai conducted a study spanning six weeks, involving 11 hospitals in California, to illustrate the alterations brought about by California SB 1254; the study found that about 94% (2,554) of medication histories had at least one inaccuracy, and each patient had an average of six errors found and prevented. Approximately 54% (1,474) of patients had at least one medication list error that was serious or potentially fatal, and 25% of all errors that pharmacy workers stopped were potentially dangerous or fatal. During the six-week research period, participating hospitals discovered almost 15,000 medication history mistakes. The most frequent mistakes include listing wrong dosages, rates, or frequencies for drugs and omitting prescriptions for treatments that are no longer prescribed or administered.

A law that helps shield patients from avoidable pharmaceutical errors brought on by incorrect evaluations is long overdue in the healthcare industry. As a foundational measure to protect hospitalized patients from avoidable medication errors, a precise and up-to-date medication list is required. Physicians will use the medication list to order inpatient prescriptions and to reconcile the patient's medication at discharge to ensure clarity on continuing, discontinued, and new medication orders. An accurate medication list is essential for patient care both while the patient is in the hospital and during the discharge process. The medication admission profiles must be recorded and provided via the electronic health record (EHR). All outpatient pharmacy EHRs should be universally accessible from the inpatient setting in order to maximize the electronic medication list. Since not every patient brings their medication or a complete prescription list with them when they are admitted to the hospital, technology is necessary for the pharmacist to get an accurate medication list. To improve patient safety and reduce pharmaceutical errors, this bill needs to be implemented nationwide.