Effectiveness of Medication Management Process Using FMEA Approach-Arba Minch Government General Hospital-Ethiopia

The study was designed as observational and analytical research. In every hospital, irrespective of their standards medication errors remain the continuous phenomenon. The high possibility of medication faults lead to fatal consequences and chances for patient morbidity or mortality. The purpose of undertaken this study was to minimize or progressively eliminate the medicament errors and meaningfully improve and ensure patients safety by applying Failure Mode Effective Analyses (FMEA) approach in the inpatient area of Arba Minch Government General Hospital, Arba Minch, Gamo zone, SNNPR region, Ethiopia. The study carefully investigated the (a) failure modes, (b) the causes for process collapse and (c) its effects on patients. The possible ratings were properly assigned based on scales provided by the Institute for Healthcare improvement. The key respondents were carefully selected based on medication management process in each area. The likely respondents were selected according to convenience sampling method. The primary and secondary data were collected from the convenient sources. The primary data collected through conducting face to face discussions and direct observations with the medical officer (MO), pharmacist, nurse supervisor and an administrative officer of the Arba Minch Government General hospital. The study was administered in four phases involving process mapping, identifying failure modes, prioritizing of failure modes through ‘RPN’ and suggestions to minimize or eliminate the failures. The key errors finding in the investigation were (a) prescription errors (b) Dispensing errors and (c) Drug administration errors. The significance of the study was prominently used FMEA tool to carefully formulate Healthcare policies and necessary procedures to typically prevent medication errors and improve Quality of effective medication in a cost- effective way.