Today, ASHP (American Society of Health-System Pharmacists) and Bainbridge Health announced an agreement to bolster the adoption of standardized medication concentrations for intravenous (IV) medications in hospitals and health systems. The collaboration is through the ASHP Innovation Center, with a goal of improving patient safety and reducing supply chain complexity in patient-care settings.
The collaboration will allow users of Bainbridge Health's Med O.S.® technology platform and clinical services to compare formulations in use at their hospital or health system with the concentrations in ASHP’s Standardize 4 Safety lists and Bainbridge Health’s network benchmarks to identify opportunities to drive standardization.
“This collaboration between the ASHP Innovation Center and Bainbridge Health supports ASHP’s vision that medication use will be optimal, safe, and effective for all people all of the time,” said Douglas J. Scheckelhoff, ASHP senior vice president of practice advancement. “This collaboration will help expand the use of innovative medication safety technology and give clinicians the actionable data they need to improve the quality and safety of patient care.”
The ASHP Standardize 4 Safety initiative is the first national, interprofessional effort to standardize medication concentrations to reduce errors, especially during care transitions. It establishes standardized concentrations for IV and oral liquid medications for patients of all ages in settings ranging from hospital to home. Bainbridge Health provides health systems with the tools and clinical support services to identify concentration variation and opportunities to standardize concentrations. Health systems can use Bainbridge’s services to implement and monitor interventions in a streamlined, cost-effective manner.
ASHP launched Standardize 4 Safety in response to the lack of a national consensus for standardized concentrations of IV and oral liquid medications. Supported by a grant from the Food and Drug Administration, ASHP convened multi-disciplinary expert stakeholders to review literature and customary practices to establish national standards. Without standardized doses, medication errors may occur, particularly when patients transition from one care setting to another. Standardization has many benefits, including increased patient safety and decreased healthcare costs, which ultimately improve patient outcomes.
An advisory panel of pharmacist, nurse, and physician experts will maintain and update the Standardize 4 Safety concentrations lists and make recommendations based on current evidence, data-generated, and standards of practice. As part of the collaboration, Bainbridge Health will participate as an ex officio member of the advisory panel.
About ASHPASHP is the collective voice of pharmacists who serve as patient care providers in hospitals, health systems, ambulatory clinics, and other healthcare settings spanning the full spectrum of medication use. The organization’s more than 60,000 members include pharmacists, student pharmacists, and pharmacy technicians. For 80 years, ASHP has been at the forefront of efforts to improve medication use and enhance patient safety. For more information about the wide array of ASHP activities and the many ways in which pharmacists advance healthcare, visit ASHP’s website, ashp.org, or its consumer website, SafeMedication.com.
About the ASHP Innovation Center
The ASHP Innovation Center was created to further elevate the vital roles that hospital and health-system pharmacy practitioners and ASHP play in new and emerging science and position pharmacy practitioners to influence the development of systems that advance the safety and quality of patient care. The ASHP Innovation Center’s mission is to influence innovation and digital transformation in the safe and effective use of medicines through high-impact partnerships, education, advocacy, research, and entrepreneurship.
About Bainbridge Health
Developed in collaboration with adult and pediatric health systems, Bainbridge Health unlocks the full value of intravenous medication data from infusion pumps to improve safety, drive standardization, and scale scarce clinical resources. Bainbridge Health's Med O.S.© data science platform, hands-on clinical service team, and leading network of health systems catalyze hard-to-manage data into actionable insights and interventions while significantly reducing the "data clerking" burden on clinicians. To learn more, please visit bainbridgehealth.com or email us at [email protected].
