Systems and methods for look-alike sound-alike medication error messaging

• US 20040059607A1
• Filed: 01/09/2003
• Published: 03/25/2004
• Est. Priority Date: 09/25/2002
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: NDCHealth Corp. (McKesson Corp.)
• Original Assignee: NDCHealth Corp. (McKesson Corp.)
• Inventors: Pinsonneault, Roger George, Coffman, Suzanne Agner, Ball, Sarah Johnston
• Granted Patent: US 7,716,068 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/3
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 20/13 delivered from dispensers
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 70/40 relating to drugs, e.g. their side effects or intended usage

Abstract

Systems and methods are provided for look-alike sound-alike medication error messaging. Prescription data relating to a prescription is parsed to identify a submitted drug product and a submitted daily dosage. An absolute dose screening process may be executed to determine whether the submitted daily dosage meets absolute dosing criteria for the submitted drug product. A typical dose screening process may be executed to determine whether the submitted daily dosage meets statistically derived typical dosing criteria for the submitted drug product and any look-alike sound-alike alternative drug products. If it is determined that the prescription should be rejected based on typical dosing criteria or absolute dosing criteria, a reject message may be built for presentation to the pharmacist.

Claims

1. A method for look-alike sound-alike medication error messaging comprising:

identifying a submitted drug product and a submitted daily dosage relating to a prescription;

determining that the submitted drug product is associated with at least one look-alike sound-alike drug pair which is further associated with one or more look-alike sound-alike alternative drug products;

determining whether the submitted daily dosage meets statistically derived typical dosing criteria for the submitted drug product; and

if the submitted daily dosage does not meet the statistically derived typical dosing criteria for the submitted drug product, determining a typical dose message.

2. A computer-readable medium having stored thereon computer-executable instructions for performing the method of claim 1.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising the steps of:

determining a clinical significance for the look-alike sound-alike drug pair, the clinical significance being a value used to quantify the consequences of a look-alike sound-alike medication error involving the look-alike sound-alike drug pair;

determining a typical dose edit action based on the clinical significance of the look-alike sound-alike drug pair and whether the submitted daily dosage meets the statistically derived typical dosing criteria for the submitted drug product, the typical dose edit action indicating whether the prescription should be rejected; and

if the typical dose edit action indicates that the prescription should be rejected, building a reject message that includes the typical dose message.

4. A computer-readable medium having stored thereon computer-executable instructions for performing the method of claim 3.

5. The method of claim 3, wherein the typical dose edit action is further determined based on whether the prescription transaction relates to a new prescription or a refill.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the submitted daily dosage is determined to not meet the statistically derived typical dosing criteria for the submitted drug product because the submitted daily dosage is equivalent to a common daily dosage for the submitted drug product, but is also equivalent to a most common daily dosage for at least one of the look-alike sound-alike alternative drug products;

and

wherein the typical dose message indicates that the submitted daily dosage is typical for the submitted drug product but that the submitted drug product and the at least one look-alike sound-alike alternative drug product may give rise to a possible look-alike sound-alike medication error.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the submitted daily dosage is determined to not meet the statistically derived typical dosing criteria for the submitted drug product because the submitted daily dosage is not equivalent to a common daily dosage for the submitted drug product, but is equivalent to a common daily dosage for at least one of the look-alike sound-alike alternative drug products;

and

wherein the typical dose message indicates that the submitted daily dosage is atypical for the submitted drug product and that the submitted drug product and the at least one look-alike sound-alike alternative drug product may give rise to a possible look-alike sound-alike medication error.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the submitted daily dosage is determined to not meet the statistically derived typical dosing criteria for the submitted drug product because the submitted daily dosage is not equivalent to a common daily dosage for the submitted drug product and is also not equivalent to a common daily dosage for any of the look-alike sound-alike alternative drug products;

and

wherein the typical dose message indicates that the submitted daily dosage is atypical for the submitted drug product.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the submitted daily dosage is determined to meet the statistically derived typical dosing criteria for the submitted drug product because the submitted daily dosage is equivalent to a most common daily dosage for the submitted drug product.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the submitted daily dosage is determined to meet the statistically derived typical dosing criteria for the submitted drug product because the submitted daily dosage is equivalent to a common daily dosage for the submitted drug product and is not equivalent to a most common daily dosage for any of the look-alike sound-alike alternative drug products.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein the statistically derived typical dosing criteria are specific to at least one of the group consisting of:

patient demographic group, treatment type, illness type and physician specialty.

12. The method of claim 1, further comprising the steps of:

determining whether the submitted daily dosage meets absolute dosing criteria for the submitted drug product; and

if the submitted daily dosage does not meet the absolute dosing criteria for the submitted drug product, determining an absolute dose message.

13. A computer-readable medium having stored thereon computer-executable instructions for performing the method of claim 12.

14. The method of claim 12, further comprising the steps of:

determining a clinical significance for the look-alike sound-alike drug pair, the clinical significance being a value used to quantify the consequences of a look-alike sound-alike medication error involving the look-alike sound-alike drug pair;

determining a typical dose edit action based on the clinical significance and whether the submitted daily dosage meets the typical dosing criteria for the submitted drug product, the typical dose edit action indicating whether the prescription should be rejected;

determining an absolute dose edit action based on whether the prescription transaction relates to a new prescription or a refill and whether the submitted daily dosage meets absolute dosing criteria for the submitted drug product, the absolute dose edit action indicating whether the prescription should be rejected; and

if at least one of the typical dose edit action and the absolute dose edit action indicates that the prescription should be rejected, building a reject message.

15. A computer-readable medium having stored thereon computer-executable instructions for performing the method of claim 14.

16. The method of claim 14, wherein the typical dose edit action is further determined based on whether the prescription relates to the new prescription or the refill.

17. The method of claim 14, wherein the reject message comprises:

the absolute dose message if the absolute dose edit action indicates that the prescription should be rejected; and

the typical dose message if the typical dose edit action indicates that the prescription should be rejected,

whereby inclusion of more than one of the absolute dose message and the typical dose message in the reject message is dependent on there being sufficient text space in the reject message, with first preference given to the absolute dose message.

18. The method of claim 12, wherein the submitted daily dosage is determined to not meet the absolute dosing criteria for the submitted drug product because the submitted daily dosage is lower than an absolute minimum daily dosage for the submitted drug product;

and

wherein the absolute dose message indicates the absolute minimum daily dosage for the submitted drug product.

19. The method of claim 12, wherein the submitted daily dosage is determined to not meet the absolute dosing criteria for the submitted drug product because the submitted daily dosage exceeds an absolute maximum daily dosage for the submitted drug product;

and

wherein the absolute dose message indicates the absolute maximum daily dosage for the submitted drug product.

20. The method of claim 12, wherein the absolute dosing criteria is specific to at least one of the group consisting of:

patient demographic group, treatment type and illness type.

21. A system for look-alike sound-alike medication error messaging comprising:

means for receiving prescription data relating to a prescription;

a database comprising one or more database tables for storing a plurality of look-alike sound-alike drug pairs, statistically derived typical dosing criteria for a plurality of drug products and a plurality of typical dose messages; and

a processor functionally coupled to the network interface and the database and configured for executing computer-executable instructions for;

parsing said prescription data to identify a submitted drug product and a submitted daily dosage,

querying the database to determine that the submitted drug product is associated with at least one look-alike sound-alike drug pair, which is further associated with one or more look-alike sound-alike alternative drug products,

querying the database to determine whether the submitted daily dosage meets the statistically derived typical dosing criteria for the submitted drug product, and

if the submitted daily dosage is determined to not meet the statistically derived typical dosing criteria for the submitted drug product, querying the database to determine the typical dose message for the prescription transaction.

22. The system of claim 21, wherein the one or more database tables further store clinical significance values for each of the plurality of look-alike sound-alike drug pairs, the clinical significance values being used to quantify the consequences of a look-alike sound-alike medication error;

wherein the one or more database tables associate typical dose edit actions and clinical significance values with each of the plurality of typical dose messages, the typical dose edit actions indicating whether prescriptions should be rejected; and

wherein the processor executes further computer-executable instructions for;

querying the database to determine the clinical significance value for the at least one look-alike sound-alike drug pair,

querying the database to determine the typical dose edit action based on the clinical significance value and for the at least one look-alike sound-alike drug pair and whether the submitted daily dosage meets the statistically derived typical dosing criteria for the submitted drug product, and

if the typical dose edit action indicates that the prescription should be rejected, building a reject message that includes the typical dose message.

23. The system of claim 22, wherein the one or more database tables further associate a new prescription/refill indicator with each of the plurality of typical dose messages;

and

wherein the typical dose edit action is further determined based on whether the prescription relates to a new prescription or a refill.

24. The system of claim 21, wherein the submitted daily dosage is determined to not meet the statistically derived typical dosing criteria for the submitted drug product because the submitted daily dosage is equivalent to a common daily dosage for the submitted drug product, but is also equivalent to a most common daily dosage for at least one of the look-alike sound-alike alternative drug products;

and

wherein the typical dose message indicates that the submitted daily dosage is typical for the submitted drug product but that the submitted drug product and the at least one look-alike sound-alike alternative drug product may give rise to a possible look-alike sound-alike medication error.

25. The system of claim 21, wherein the submitted daily dosage is determined to not meet the statistically derived typical dosing criteria for the submitted drug product because the submitted daily dosage is not equivalent to a common daily dosage for the submitted drug product, but is equivalent to a common daily dosage for at least one of the look-alike sound-alike alternative drug product;

and

wherein the typical dose message indicates that the submitted daily dosage is atypical for the submitted drug product and that the submitted drug product and the at least one look-alike sound-alike alternative drug product may give rise to a possible look-alike sound-alike medication error.

26. The system of claim 21, wherein the submitted daily dosage is determined to not meet the statistically derived typical dosing criteria for the submitted drug product because the submitted daily dosage is not equivalent to a common daily dosage for the submitted drug product and is also not equivalent to a common daily dosage for at least one of the look-alike sound-alike alternative drug product;

and

wherein the typical dose message indicates that the submitted daily dosage is atypical for the submitted drug product.

27. The system of claim 21, wherein the submitted daily dosage is determined to meet the statistically derived typical dosing criteria for the submitted drug product because the submitted daily dosage is equivalent to a most common daily dosage for the submitted drug product.

28. The system of claim 21, wherein the submitted daily dosage is determined to meet the statistically derived typical dosing criteria for the submitted drug product because the submitted daily dosage is equivalent to a common daily dosage for the submitted drug product and is not equivalent to a most common daily dosage for any of the look-alike sound-alike alternative drug products.

29. The system of claim 21, wherein the statistically derived typical dosing criteria are specific to at least one of the group consisting of:

patient demographic group, treatment type, illness type and physician specialty.

30. The system of claim 21, wherein the one or more database tables further store absolute dosing criteria for the plurality of drug products and a plurality of absolute dose messages;

and

wherein the processor executes further computer-executable instructions for;

querying the database to determine whether the submitted daily dosage meets absolute dosing criteria for the submitted drug product, and

if it is determined that the submitted daily dosage does not meet the absolute dosing criteria for the submitted drug product, querying the database to determine the absolute dose message for the prescription.

31. The system of claim 30, wherein the one or more database tables further store clinical significance values for each of the plurality of look-alike sound-alike drug pairs, the clinical significance values being used to quantify the consequences of a look-alike sound-alike medication error;

wherein the one or more database tables associate typical dose edit actions and clinical significance values with each of the plurality of typical dose messages and associate absolute dose edit actions with each of the plurality of absolute dose messages, the typical dose edit actions and the absolute dose edit actions indicating whether prescriptions should be rejected; and

wherein the processor executes further computer-executable instructions for;

querying the database to determine the clinical significance value for the at least one look-alike sound-alike drug pair,

querying the database to determine the typical dose edit action based on the clinical significance value for the at least one look-alike sound-alike drug pair and whether the submitted daily dosage meets the statistically derived typical dosing criteria for the submitted drug product,

querying the database to determine the absolute dose edit action based on whether the prescription relates to a new prescription or a refill, and

if at least one of the typical dose edit action and the absolute dose edit action indicates that the prescription should be rejected, building a reject message.

32. The system of claim 31, wherein the typical dose edit action is further determined based on whether the prescription transaction relates to a new prescription or a refill.

33. The system of claim 31, wherein the reject message comprises:

the absolute dose message if the absolute dose edit action indicates that the prescription should be rejected; and

the typical dose message if the typical dose edit action indicates that the prescription should be rejected,

whereby inclusion of more than one of the absolute dose message and the typical dose message in the reject message is dependent on there being sufficient text space in the reject message, with first preference given to the absolute dose message.

34. The system of claim 30, wherein the submitted daily dosage is determined to not meet the absolute dosing criteria for the submitted drug product because the submitted daily dosage is lower than an absolute minimum daily dosage for the submitted drug product;

and

wherein the absolute dose message indicates the absolute minimum daily dosage for the submitted drug product.

35. The system of claim 30, wherein the submitted daily dosage is determined to not meet the absolute dosing criteria for the submitted drug product because the submitted daily dosage exceeds an absolute maximum daily dosage for the submitted drug product;

and

wherein the absolute dose message indicates the absolute maximum daily dosage for the submitted drug product.

36. The system of claim 30, wherein the absolute dosing criteria is specific to at least one of the group consisting of:

patient demographic group, treatment type and illness type.