Re-Evaluating Adverse Reactions and Improving Drug Safety

Children's Mercy has developed a Drug Safety Service that is designed to more accurately define and describe adverse drug reactions, side effects, allergies and idiosyncratic reactions. Initiated as a pilot service to the General Pediatrics Teams, the drug safety surveillance program is changing the way health care personnel describe an adverse reaction.

Clinical pharmacists are re-evaluating historical reactions to clarify what happened and determine whether the patient may safely receive a medication in the future. This will expand the use of trusted and cost-effective medications, when previously they may have been denied based on inaccurate information. It also trains staff to more clearly understand and define different types of reactions and correctly document them. The Drug Safety Service will expand to a hospital-wide program in early 2011 and begin utilizing the 'trigger' system to recognize early adverse reactions that occur within the institution.

Children's Mercy is also launching an inpatient consult service to help children who are experiencing difficulties in prescribing and utilizing specific medications. Physicians who collaborate closely with the Clinical Pharmacology and Personalized Medicine teams on a regular basis have created a list of medications for which they would like support in the treatment of all types of diseases and conditions. These will serve as pilot projects, designed to work for other sub-specialists to improve care for patients while also allowing providers throughout the system to be involved in the development of programs that will utilize information and technologies that are not currently available.

Click here to discover more ways we're redefining pediatric medicine, one child at a time.