{"title":"Enhancing nutritional formula expiry monitoring: A quality improvement project in a tertiary-level hospital in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.","authors":"Sawsan Albalawi, Rania AlObari, Eyad AlMidani, Rafat Malkawi, Dima Abosaleh, Sozan Qarni, Sasikalan Subrayan, Saif Almuteiry, Leodevina Abel-Reyes, Bader Alhazaa, Raghad Alhuthil","doi":"10.1002/ncp.11172","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Background: </strong>Nutrition is a vital part of any treatment plan. This may include providing nutritional formulas during hospitalization and afterward. However, reported incidents showed that we had issues with nutritional formula expiry monitoring at our hospital with low compliance to Joint Commission International Standards (MMU.3.1): \"There is a process for storage of medications and nutritional products that require special consideration.\" Therefore, a \"Nutritional Formula Expiry Monitoring\" project was created to decrease hospital safety incidents related to expired nutritional formulas from an average of 28 in 2015 to zero by 2018.</p><p><strong>Materials and methods: </strong>A quality improvement model was developed to map the existing formula processes. Several proposed ideas were tested including performing a hospital-wide audit to examine possible risks and practices, developing a hospital policy, flow charts, forms, and audit tools, and providing educational presentations.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>A total of 40 units in the hospital were included in the implementation. After implementing all the change ideas, the system for monitoring the expiry of the nutritional formula was standardized, and the number of reported incidents related to the nutritional formula decreased from 28 in the third quarter of 2015 to one in the first quarter of 2018.</p><p><strong>Conclusion: </strong>This project provided step-by-step instructions for improving storing, delivering, and monitoring of nutritional formula. Consequently, the incidences of expired formula and cost wasting were successfully decreased, which increased safe administration and prevented patients from receiving expired nutritional formula. This project can be implemented in various healthcare settings.</p>","PeriodicalId":19354,"journal":{"name":"Nutrition in Clinical Practice","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":2.1000,"publicationDate":"2024-10-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Nutrition in Clinical Practice","FirstCategoryId":"3","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1002/ncp.11172","RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"2024/6/18 0:00:00","PubModel":"Epub","JCR":"Q3","JCRName":"NUTRITION & DIETETICS","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
Background: Nutrition is a vital part of any treatment plan. This may include providing nutritional formulas during hospitalization and afterward. However, reported incidents showed that we had issues with nutritional formula expiry monitoring at our hospital with low compliance to Joint Commission International Standards (MMU.3.1): "There is a process for storage of medications and nutritional products that require special consideration." Therefore, a "Nutritional Formula Expiry Monitoring" project was created to decrease hospital safety incidents related to expired nutritional formulas from an average of 28 in 2015 to zero by 2018.
Materials and methods: A quality improvement model was developed to map the existing formula processes. Several proposed ideas were tested including performing a hospital-wide audit to examine possible risks and practices, developing a hospital policy, flow charts, forms, and audit tools, and providing educational presentations.
Results: A total of 40 units in the hospital were included in the implementation. After implementing all the change ideas, the system for monitoring the expiry of the nutritional formula was standardized, and the number of reported incidents related to the nutritional formula decreased from 28 in the third quarter of 2015 to one in the first quarter of 2018.
Conclusion: This project provided step-by-step instructions for improving storing, delivering, and monitoring of nutritional formula. Consequently, the incidences of expired formula and cost wasting were successfully decreased, which increased safe administration and prevented patients from receiving expired nutritional formula. This project can be implemented in various healthcare settings.
期刊介绍:
NCP is a peer-reviewed, interdisciplinary publication that publishes articles about the scientific basis and clinical application of nutrition and nutrition support. NCP contains comprehensive reviews, clinical research, case observations, and other types of papers written by experts in the field of nutrition and health care practitioners involved in the delivery of specialized nutrition support. This journal is a member of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE).