11.15.2024 PCS
Keeping track of medications with ATLAS eMAR
Falls are common in older adults and can negatively impact their physical, mental, and emotional wellbeing. Care home staff need to take preventive measures to reduce falls, and one way to do that is through managing medications.
Care home residents are often prescribed several medications to manage their medical conditions. While these medications can help with the intended purpose, they may also come with unintended side effects, for example, fatigue and drowsiness. Furthermore, combining multiple medications can increase the risk of drug interactions, causing unwanted side effects and increasing the risk of falls in older adults. Therefore, it's crucial for care staff to carefully monitor and manage medication intake to avoid any potential complications.
Learning to manage resident's medications well and understanding how they affect the resident is an essential part of fall prevention and avoiding the issues that present themselves after a fall, such as injuries, pain, loss of confidence, emotional trauma, etc.
How does medication management help prevent falls?
Effective management of medications is crucial in care homes. Medicine management covers the storage of medicines, dispensing of medicines, administration of medication, the safe disposal of medicines and medication administration and record keeping.
Without a system to manage medications efficiently and effectively, errors can occur, such as:
- Prescription - inappropriate medication, illegible handwriting, route errors
- Administration - preparation, delay errors
- Dispensing - dose, substitution errors
- Monitoring - missed signs, inadequate follow-ups
Such errors can lead to adverse reactions, which then increase the risk of falls.
Using a system like ATLAS eMAR gives care home staff a complete and detailed overview of every aspect of the medication management process in real time. Here are just some of the solutions that ATLAS provides:
Resident safety
ATLAS eMAR has been proven to increase resident safety thanks to its Barcode Technology, which displays the medications residents should be administered to care staff.
It also lets care staff scan the pharmacy label using the barcode reader, which runs automatic safety checks (medication, dose, timing, recipient) and flags any potential issues.
Saving time
By reducing time spent on administering medications, ATLAS eMAR frees up valuable time for care staff and management to ensure that other aspects of medication management are given the attention they need.
Stock control
ATLAS eMAR helps to manage stock levels to avoid overstocking whilst ensuring that medications don't run out. The system warns staff nine days before medicines run out, and it also counts down the days by sending a push report every day into the care staff's inbox, helping to keep everyone up to date.
Transparency
Thanks to ATLAS's Centralised Dashboard, every medication-related transaction can be logged, along with staff codes.
A full audit trail is available on the dashboard, giving managers complete oversight.
Want to know more about ATLAS eMAR?
We've discussed the many ways in which ATLAS eMAR can help you achieve your goals in medication management, but if you want further information on what sets ATLAS eMAR apart from other systems, you can book a demo by clicking below.
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