Lay summary
The National Quality Improvement Committee has recognised ‘safe medication management’ and ‘infection prevention and control’ as two pressing priorities in healthcare provision. Moreover, the NZ Health Quality & Safety Commission reported in 2012 that medication error constituted almost 20% of ‘serious and sentinel events’. While mistakes can affect any point in the prescription-to-administration chain, it is logical to prioritise the accuracy of the initial choice of drug, dosage and route of administration; namely, the precision of prescription.
Therefore, our team proposes to explore:
Does a smartphone application result in greater adherence to guidelines by clinicians, and a reduction in ‘prescription errors’ by:
1. Developing a web-based smartphone application encapsulating the antibiotic policies of Auckland City Hospital in a user-friendly and portable format.
2. Examining the impact of using the application on, for example, prescribing patterns, errors, guideline adherence, resources use etc.
3. Evaluating the usability (uptake) and confidence of use by clinicians.