McLarney Rosaleen, Cashin Erin, Cashin Richard, Colegrave Celina, Luscombe Mabel
Can Nurse. 2012 May;108(5):22-7.
Unauthorized medication collections (UMCs) on inpatient (IP) units represent a potential source of medication errors. UMCs are collections of medications not approved for storage and immediate access on IP units. We sought to establish whether UMCs were present on IP units in a suburban acute care hospital and to document the characteristics of any UMCs found.
In this descriptive study, we searched all of the IP units in the hospital for unauthorized medications. We checked all medications found against current ward-stock lists to determine whether they were authorized, and we classified unauthorized medications into the following categories: high-alert, easily confused, expired and improperly stored medications, and controlled substances. All unauthorized medications found in various locations on a unit were considered one collection. We counted the number of unique products and total number of medications and calculated the total dollar value of the medications in each UMC.
A UMC was found on each of the 17 IP units in the study hospital, resulting in a total of 656 unauthorized medications constituting 163 unique products. We documented high-alert, easily confused and expired medications and controlled substances. No unauthorized medications were improperly stored.
Investigations are needed to determine why these UMCs exist and to formulate mechanisms to eliminate them. Knowing that UMCs may be present, nurses should search their workspace and remove any UMCs they find. They should also examine their nursing practice to determine if they are contributing to this unsafe practice.
住院病房的未经授权的药品收集（UMC）是用药错误的一个潜在来源。UMC是指在住院病房未被批准储存且不能立即取用的药品收集。我们试图确定一家郊区急症医院的住院病房是否存在UMC，并记录所发现的任何UMC的特征。
在这项描述性研究中，我们在医院所有住院病房搜索未经授权的药品。我们对照当前病房库存清单检查所有发现的药品，以确定它们是否被授权，并将未经授权的药品分为以下几类：高警示药品、易混淆药品、过期和储存不当的药品以及管制物质。在一个病房不同位置发现的所有未经授权的药品被视为一个收集。我们统计了独特产品的数量和药品总数，并计算了每个UMC中药品的总价值。
在研究医院的17个住院病房中每个病房都发现了一个UMC，总共656种未经授权的药品构成163种独特产品。我们记录了高警示药品、易混淆药品、过期药品和管制物质。没有发现未经授权的药品储存不当。
需要进行调查以确定这些UMC存在的原因，并制定消除它们的机制。知道可能存在UMC后，护士应该搜索其工作区域并移除他们发现的任何UMC。他们还应该检查自己的护理操作，以确定自己是否助长了这种不安全的做法。
