The MOWER (middle of the Week Everyone Gets a Re-chart) Pilot Study: Reducing In-hospital Charting Error with a Multi-intervention

Overview

Journal BMC Health Serv Res

Publisher Biomed Central

Specialty Health Services

Date 2019 Jun 22

PMID 31221157

Citations 1

Authors

Tony Floyd

Siri Martensson

Jannine Bailey

Derek Kay

Bruce McGarity

Bronwyn K Brew

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

Background: Medication charting errors occur often and can be harmful for patients. Interventions to improve charting errors have demonstrated some success particularly if the intervention uses multiple approaches including an education component. The aim of this pilot study was to determine whether a multi-faceted intervention, including education of junior doctors and weekday re-charting could reduce in-hospital charting error.

Methods: Medication charts (n = 579) of all patients admitted to the medical ward of a medium sized regionally-based hospital in Australia over nine months (baseline and during intervention) were inspected for errors. The intervention ran for three months and involved implementation of a National Inpatient Medication Chart targeted error tool with eight targeted charting requirements which was used for visual reminders in the ward and training of junior doctors. In addition, mid-weekly re-charting (MOWER) was performed by a senior and junior doctor team.

Results: The mean number of charting requirement errors significantly reduced during the intervention by 26% from 4.6 ± 1.3 to 3.4 ± 1.7 per chart (p < 0.001). Re-chart errors reduced on average by 50% (4.4 ± 1.4 to 2.2 ± 1.7 per chart, p < 0.001) and primary (initial) charts by 20% (4.6 ± 1.3 to 3.7 ± 1.5 per chart, p < 0.001) during the intervention. Failing to provide indication information for a drug, prescriber name, and failing to use generic rather than brand names were the categories with the most errors at baseline and also showed the largest error reductions during the intervention.

Conclusions: A multi-intervention including education of junior doctors, visual reminders and midweek re-charting are effective in reducing the rate of charting errors. We advise that a larger study is now conducted using the same multi-intervention strategy in different ward settings to evaluate feasibility and sustainability of this intervention.

Citing Articles

Implementation of a full-scale prehospital telemedicine system: evaluation of the process and systemic effects in a pre-post intervention study.

Bergrath S, Brokmann J, Beckers S, Felzen M, Czaplik M, Rossaint R BMJ Open. 2021; 11(3):e041942.

PMID: 33762230 PMC: 7993199. DOI: 10.1136/bmjopen-2020-041942.

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