Research team seeks information about diabetes medication errors

In return for providing information on care home residents with diabetes residing in Bedfordshire or Hertfordshire who may have had problems as a result of a prescription error, free help is available with understanding how that error occurred and how it might be prevented in the future.

Research being undertaken by the University of Bedfordshire and the Institute of Diabetes for Older People is breaking new ground by allowing care homes to report medication problems they are encountering with hospital, GP and pharmacy services.

The research in question is a two-and-a-half year Research for Patient Benefit funded project, part of the National Institute for Health Research portfolio of research.

Medication errors in both insulin and oral blood glucose-lowering drug therapy, such as prescription administration, adverse drug reactions and medicines dispensing and management problems are a significant and common cause of preventable harm in all health and social care settings. These errors can carry a significant cost for the resident, in terms of potential avoidable harm, and also bring with them a significant financial cost for the care home.

The research team want to understand and report on the types of medication errors that occur in NHS systems that supply residents with diabetes in the nursing home sector. We will use that information to design solutions to reduce the chances of those errors occuring in NHS systems again in the future.

Care homes that report incidents will get free copies of the findings generated by the research team and a full root cause analysis report of incidents involving their own residents. The study is based on the principles of ‘Being Open’ and learning from medication incidents and is completely confidential and so no residents, homes, staff or NHS organisations will be named.

The study has the approval of the National Research Ethics Service and is supported by a high quality team of research staff who have extensive health care experience.

The research team will only pursue incidents after the appropriate permissions have been gained. The primary purpose of this study is to enhance learning and solution development with regard to reducing the number and severity of medication errors that occur in NHS systems.

If you would like further information about the study, or would like to report a potential incident please contact Frank Milligan, lead researcher at frank.milligan@beds.ac.uk or telephone 01582 743825, or Kathryn Newton, research officer at kathryn.newton@beds.ac.uk or telephone 012324 793105.