COMBATING DRUG DIVERSION IN HEALTHCARE
Tiffany Johnson
Metropolitan State University
Introduction Despite numerous strides and advancements in modern medicine, the delivery of quality and effective health care remains a daunting task in both developed and developing countries. The nature of interpersonal relationships between caregivers or providers and the users of health and social care services dictates the degree to which effective service delivery is achieved. Even in high quality work environments comprised of modern equipment, the overall quality of health care provided still depends on the caregivers’ attitudes, professional expectations and professional capacity to dispense medicine accurately to every patient (Ghaye …show more content…
Consequently, there is a lack of sufficient scholarly research and data on the prevalence of drug diversion in health institutions. Research indicates that the larger the size of staff at large health institutions such as hospitals increases the risk of drug diversion due to their expansive staff and drug resource requirements that make it difficult to monitor drug use and dispensation consistently for every individual staff member (McKinney, 2015). Coupled by the stark reality of dynamic professional acumen between training staff and experienced healthcare providers, the challenge of monitoring drug dispensation becomes all the more complicated. For instance, anti-diversion measures at the University of Tennessee medical institution found that they apprehended about four diverters every month, even after they had already displayed their program’s ability to identify the guilty parties (McKinney, …show more content…
However, the risks associated with the diversion of intravenous drugs places patients at even greater risk due to the possibility of encountering infectious agents that transfer when nurses divert drugs intended for them. In addition, patients receive less quality during their interactions with such health institutions, which reduces the latter’s ability to meet their mandate in providing quality and safe healthcare to the public. Large hospitals face greater problems compared to their smaller counterparts when tackling this issue due to their high numbers of employees as well as the vast drug resources that they maintain in order to provide a broad range of health solutions. In fact, even institutions with well-established and long-serving anti-diversion measures still record instances of nurses seeking to divert medications. In some cases, hospitals have found that electronic systems play a critical role in reducing the prevalence of drug diversion in their institutions.
Solutions such as ADCs integrate into existing frameworks like the electronic medication administration record to provide more oversight that facilitates comprehensive drug management in the hospital setting. Similarly, the use of pharmacogenomics and pharmacogenetics to genetically code drugs to specific genomes and individuals undermines the prevalence of drug diversion. Therefore, health institutions
Tiffany Johnson
Metropolitan State University
Introduction Despite numerous strides and advancements in modern medicine, the delivery of quality and effective health care remains a daunting task in both developed and developing countries. The nature of interpersonal relationships between caregivers or providers and the users of health and social care services dictates the degree to which effective service delivery is achieved. Even in high quality work environments comprised of modern equipment, the overall quality of health care provided still depends on the caregivers’ attitudes, professional expectations and professional capacity to dispense medicine accurately to every patient (Ghaye …show more content…
Consequently, there is a lack of sufficient scholarly research and data on the prevalence of drug diversion in health institutions. Research indicates that the larger the size of staff at large health institutions such as hospitals increases the risk of drug diversion due to their expansive staff and drug resource requirements that make it difficult to monitor drug use and dispensation consistently for every individual staff member (McKinney, 2015). Coupled by the stark reality of dynamic professional acumen between training staff and experienced healthcare providers, the challenge of monitoring drug dispensation becomes all the more complicated. For instance, anti-diversion measures at the University of Tennessee medical institution found that they apprehended about four diverters every month, even after they had already displayed their program’s ability to identify the guilty parties (McKinney, …show more content…
However, the risks associated with the diversion of intravenous drugs places patients at even greater risk due to the possibility of encountering infectious agents that transfer when nurses divert drugs intended for them. In addition, patients receive less quality during their interactions with such health institutions, which reduces the latter’s ability to meet their mandate in providing quality and safe healthcare to the public. Large hospitals face greater problems compared to their smaller counterparts when tackling this issue due to their high numbers of employees as well as the vast drug resources that they maintain in order to provide a broad range of health solutions. In fact, even institutions with well-established and long-serving anti-diversion measures still record instances of nurses seeking to divert medications. In some cases, hospitals have found that electronic systems play a critical role in reducing the prevalence of drug diversion in their institutions.
Solutions such as ADCs integrate into existing frameworks like the electronic medication administration record to provide more oversight that facilitates comprehensive drug management in the hospital setting. Similarly, the use of pharmacogenomics and pharmacogenetics to genetically code drugs to specific genomes and individuals undermines the prevalence of drug diversion. Therefore, health institutions