Medication Safety Self-assessment in Hospital Wards Within A Regional Health Services System: A Descriptive Follow-up Study
Kaisa Mäkinen, Tiina Kortteisto, Marja Airaksinen, Terhi ToivoObjectives:
This study aimed to assess safe medication practices and changes over a 1-year follow-up period in hospital wards within a regional health services system using a structured self-assessment procedure.
Methods:
An interprofessional team at Tampere University Hospital developed a medication safety self-assessment procedure in Finland in spring 2022. The self-assessment was conducted in all inpatient wards in November 2022 and repeated in November 2023. Each ward held a 2-hour interprofessional meeting to complete the assessment, documented through an electronic survey tool (Webropol) comprising 80 structured items assessing practices and rated on a 5-point scale. Descriptive statistics were used to analyze changes over time.
Results:
In 2022, 60 specialized care wards participated; in 2023, 76 wards participated, including both primary and specialized care wards. The best implemented safe medication practices in 2023 included supervisors’ commitment and valid medication administration licenses for nursing staff. Practices requiring further development included onboarding procedures for new staff and maintaining up-to-date medication lists. Notable improvements were observed in supervisors' commitment to safe medication practices and physicians’ commitment to confirming and documenting reconciled medication regimens. The proportion of fully implemented practices increased from 23% (n=18/80) in 2022 to 33% (n=26/80) in 2023.
Conclusions:
This study provides an overview of medication safety management by identifying well and poorly implemented safe medication practices and revealing trends over time. Even within a 1-year follow-up period, substantial improvements were observed across regional health services system wards. The self-assessment procedure offers a practical mechanism to support management and continuous quality improvement.