Practice of Optimizing Information Management of Outpatient Examination Medications Using Healthcare Failure Mode and Effect Analysis

OBJECTIVE  To explore the application value of health care failure mode and effect analysis(HFMEA) in the information-based management model for medication in outpatient examinations.

METHODS  HFMEA was applied to five main processes in the traditional management of medication for outpatient examinations(physician order writing, pharmacist dispensing, patient drug collection, registration and check-in at the examination room, and medication administration by healthcare personnel). Potential failure modes were identified, and the causes of failures were analyzed. The frequency and severity of the failure modes were quantified and evaluated, and the risk priority number(RPN) was calculated. Critical processes requiring improvement were identified using a risk scoring matrix and decision tree. Improvement measures were then developed and implemented. An intelligent module for outpatient examination medication was designed to establish an information-based management process. Comparisons were made between pre- and post-improvement using HFMEA in terms of RPN values, patient satisfaction, healthcare worker satisfaction.

RESULTS  A total of 11 potential failure causes were identified. After the improvement, the RPN values of all 11 potential failure causes significantly decreased(P<0.001), with both patient satisfaction and healthcare provider satisfaction demonstrating improvement(P<0.05).

CONCLUSION  The application of the HFMEA method to construct an information-based management model for medication in outpatient examinations has yielded significant results, effectively mitigates risks associated with recognized failure modes across every phase of medication management in diagnostic testing, thereby improving diagnostic and therapeutic efficiency and patient satisfaction, and ensuring patient medication safety.