Implementing a Distraction-Free Practice With the Red Zone Medication Safety Initiative

Background: The incidence of medication errors remains a continued concern across the spectrum of health care. Approaches to averting medication errors and implementing a culture of safety are key areas of focus for most institutions. We describe our experience of implementing a distraction-free medication safety practice across a large free-standing children's hospital. Methods: A nurse-led interprofessional group was convened to develop a program-wide quality improvement process for the practice of medication safety. A key driver diagram was developed to guide the Red Zone Medication Safety initiative. Change acceleration process was used to evaluate the implementation and impact of the initiative. Results: Since implementation in 2010, there has been a significant reduction in medication events of 79.2% (P = .00184) and 65.3% (P = .035) (in the cardiac intensive care unit and acute care cardiac unit, respectively), including months with unprecedented zero reportable medication events. There also has been a sustained decrease in the number of events reaching the patient (33.3% in the cardiac intensive care unit and 57.1% in the acute care cardiac unit). Conclusions: The implementation of a distraction-free practice was found to be feasible and effective, demonstrating a sustained decrease in the overall number of medication events, event rate, and number of events reaching patients. This interprofessional approach was successful in a large inpatient cardiovascular program and then effectively transferred across all hospital inpatient units. Additional sites of implementation include other high-risk patient care areas such as procedure/operative units.