High-risk medicine management needs a tailored approach
Senior lecturer and pharmacist Anne Leversha, contributed to a paper recently published in Practical Diabetes that examined the self reported impact on hospital insulin management policies of an insulin alert and accompaying audit tool that were distributed to Victorian hopsitals in 2009.
Less than a third of hospitals to responded. While those who did respond reported that that insulin alert triggered them to review management policies, it was clear that the form in which the audit tool was presented discouraged its use.
The exercise highlighted that passive implementation processes, self-reporting and long, written audit tools were unlikely to result in change in the management of high-risk medicine. Instead, the authors recommend that processes need to be tailored to suit individual organisations and should engage key local clinical leaders.
‘Insulin: a commonly used high-risk medicine’ is available online.