Pharmacy Team Awarded for Reducing Adverse Drug Events

Inova’s pharmacy medication team has been recognized for successful implementation of error-reduction strategies around insulin administration by the Institute for Safe Medication Practices (ISMP) annual Cheers Awards. Each year, the ISMP honors individuals, institutions and groups who have demonstrated “exemplary commitment to the continued science and study of medication safety through innovative and creative projects, programs, educational efforts, standard setting, and/or research.”

Inova’s Intravenous (IV) Insulin Team: Push It, Push It Real Safe initiative received the recognition for their persistence in improving the safety of IV regular insulin administration.

The pharmacy medication team collaborated with other disciplines to implement error-reduction strategies, including restricting regular insulin to the IV route, requiring regular insulin prescribing via order sets with dosing limits, linking orders for IV push regular insulin to ensure dispensing of an appropriate needleless luer lock insulin syringe, and including an image of the appropriate syringe to be used for administration in the medication administration record.

The team also has ensured that commercially available premixed regular insulin is being used for IV infusions.

Read About the 24th Annual Cheers Award Recipients

“It is truly an honor to be recognized by ISMP, the preeminent global organization for medication safety,” says Melanie Massiah-White, Inova’s Chief Pharmacy Officer. “We are very proud to be part of the Inova team, which is relentlessly dedicated to patient safety and is on a continuous  journey to excellence and high reliability in healthcare.”

Many ISMP tools and guidelines were utilized during the process, and over the last year there has been a significant reduction in severe hypoglycemic events.

The ISMP Cheers Awards honor individuals, organizations, and companies that have set a standard of excellence for others to follow in the prevention of medication errors and adverse drug events.