Mr. Anderson is to receive a medication that was prepared, prepackaged, and labeled with his name by the hospital pharmacy. The medication technician greets Mr. Anderson and verifes his identity, then removes the medication from its storage container and checks it against the MAR. She then administers the medication to Mr. Anderson. What did the medication technician do wrong?
Explanation & Rationale
A. She did not perform all of the three medication checks: Safe medication administration requires performing three checks: when retrieving the medication, when preparing it, and immediately before administration. The technician only checked the medication once against the MAR, skipping two critical verification points. B. She failed to verify the medication against the medication order: The MAR is a transcription of the medication order and is commonly used for verification. As long as the MAR is current and accurate, verifying against it satisfies the need to confirm the order. C. She did not prepare the medication: Medications may be prepackaged by the pharmacy for specific patients. As long as the technician verifies the correct medication and dosage, she is not required to personally prepare it from raw stock. D. She did not call the pharmacy to confirm the medication amount: There is no standard requirement to call the pharmacy unless there is a discrepancy or concern. If the medication is clearly labeled with the correct patient and dosage, further confirmation is unnecessary.