A Cell-Phone Medication Error eHealth App for Managing Safety in Chronically Ill Young Patients at Home: A Prospective Study.

Introduction: Whereas ample information describes medication errors (MEs) in children or in mixed pediatric and adult populations discharged with acute or chronic diseases from hospital to community settings, little is known about MEs in children and adolescents with chronic diseases discharged home, a major concern. To promote home medication safety, we trained parents of children discharged with chronic diseases to record ME with a tailored cell-phone eHealth app. Methods: In a 1-year prospective study, we used the app to monitor ME in patients with chronic diseases discharged home from a tertiary hospital in Rome, Italy. Univariate and multivariate analyses detected the ME incidence rate ratio (IRR). Results: Of the 310 parents enrolled, 194 used the app. The 41 MEs involved all drug management phases. The ME IRR was 0.46 errors per child. Children <1 year had the highest ME risk (1.69 vs. 0.35, p = 0.002). Children discharged from the cardiology unit had a statistically higher ME IRR than others (3.66, 95% confidence interval: 1.01-13.23%). Conclusions: The highest ME risk at home involves children with chronic diseases <1 year old. A significant ME IRR at home concerns children with heart diseases of any age. Parents find a tailored eHealth app for monitoring and reporting ME at home easy to use. At discharge, clinical teams need to identify age-related and disease-residual risks to target additional actions for monitoring ME, thus increasing medication safety at home.

Qualitative study exploring factors influencing escalation of care of deteriorating children in a children's hospital.

BACKGROUND: System-level interventions including rapid response teams and paediatric early warning scores have been designed to support escalation of care and prevent severe adverse events in hospital wards. Barriers and facilitators to escalation of care have been rarely explored in paediatric settings. AIM: This study explores the experiences of parents and healthcare professionals of in-hospital paediatric clinical deterioration events to identify factors associated with escalation of care. METHODS: Across 2 hospital sites, 6 focus groups with 32 participants were conducted with parents (n=9) and healthcare professionals (n=23) who had cared for or witnessed a clinical deterioration event of a child. Transcripts of audio recording were analysed for emergent themes using a constant comparative approach. FINDINGS: Four themes and 19 subthemes were identified: (1) impact of staff competencies and skills, including personal judgement of clinical efficacy (self-efficacy), differences in staff training and their impact on perceived nursing credibility; (2) impact of relationships in care focusing on communication and teamwork; (3) processes identifying and responding to clinical deterioration, such as patient assessment practices, tools to support the identification of patients at risk and the role of the rapid response team; and (4) influences of organisational factors on escalation of care, such as staffing, patient pathways and continuity of care. CONCLUSIONS: Findings emphasise the considerable influence of social processes such as teamwork, communication, models of staff organisation and staff education. Further studies are needed to better understand how modification of these factors can be used to improve patient safety.