. A typical hospital has 225 medication errors per year. Approximately 35 percen
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Question
. A typical hospital has 225 medication errors per year. Approximately 35 percent of these are a result of the prescription, 30 percent from dispensing, and the remaining from administration. Suppose that a hospital has 9000 annual admissions, and that the average patient receives five prescriptions during a hospital stay. Patients stay an average of 3.5 days, and each ordered medication is dispensed daily. The average patient receives 12 medications per day. Compute the average DPMO for each of the three categories of medication errors. To what sigma level do these values correspond? HINT: consider the process is off centered.
Explanation / Answer
No. of prescription errors = 225x0.35 = 89.25 = 89
No.of dispensing errors = 225x0.3 = 67.5 = 67
Administration errors = 225-89-67 = 69
Prescriptions per patient = 5
Annual No. of prescriptions = 9000x5 =45000
Medications dispensed per patient = 12x3.5 =42
Annual no. of medication dispensed = 9000x42 = 378000
DPMO ( Defect per million opportunities )
DPMO for prescriptions = 89 /45000 x1000000 =1977.77
DPMO for medications = 67 /378000 x1000000 = 177.24
DPMO for administration errors = 69/9000 x1000000 = 7666
It is assumed that an admission involves only one administrative procedure.
Sigma levels
for prescription = 4.38
For medication = 5.125
For administration = 3.92
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