STOCKTON, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--TRC, the authors of Pharmacist’s Letter, today announced the launch of Nurse’s Letter, an online resource designed to help hospital nurses improve patient care and reduce medication errors by providing relevant and timely medication management recommendations and learning.
Nurse’s Letter content includes concise, timely, evidence-based articles on the most current medication therapies. Edited and assembled by more than 40 expert clinical professionals including MDs, PharmDs and RNs, each issue includes recommendations that are free from pharmaceutical company influence and written to provide practical guidance. It includes the most relevant subjects that address preventing medication errors, optimizing transitions of care, proper medication administration, patient education pearls, and spotting medication red flags.
“Until now, we provided medication learning only to pharmacists, pharmacy technicians, and prescribers,” said Wes Crews, TRC Chief Executive Officer. “I am pleased to announce that with Nurse’s Letter we are expanding that medication learning to nurses, which fills an education void in today’s healthcare organizations, effectively extending the pharmacist to the nurse. Nurse’s Letter is a cost-effective learning resource, and is the shortest, fastest read with clinical recommendations available. Each month content is curated to ensure only relevant and timely information that is important to patients. Our content comes directly from frontline pharmacists and physicians, and allows nurses to make more effective decisions for their patients quickly and with confidence.”
Drug allergies or harmful drug interactions account for 11 percent of preventable medication errors. Serious preventable medication errors occur in 3.8 million inpatient admissions, costing the U.S. healthcare system $16.4 billion annually1.
“Organizations that lack consistent protocol for medication therapy across the continuum can experience inconsistent medication management and errors, the results of which can not only be harmful to patients, but also negatively impact quality and reimbursement,” said Dr. Katherine Kenny DNP, RN, ANP-BC, FAANP, FAAN, associate dean of academic affairs in the College of Nursing & Health Innovation at Arizona State University. “Nurse’s Letter enables nurses to better identify potential reconciliation issues, which can help prevent errors and improve overall medication therapy quality, all of which assist organizations with reducing errors and readmissions.”
According to the Network for Excellence in Health Innovation (NEHI), 66% of preventable medication reconciliation errors occur during transitions of care, and 12% occur during discharge; activities where nurses can have a sizeable impact2. Medication learning resources like Nurse’s Letter help improve transitions of care, which is a crucial point for preventable medication reconciliation errors that can lead to readmissions, or in extreme cases, death.
About TRC (Therapeutic Research Center)
TRC is the leading provider of digital medication learning that updates, informs, and educates healthcare providers across the continuum of care. In addition to its highly regarded Pharmacist’s Letter, Prescriber’s Letter, Nurse’s Letter and Natural Medicines, TRC also provides online resources that expand on their trusted recommendations such as drug comparison charts, patient education handouts, FAQs, and tutorials. TRC delivers a complete continuing education program, online competency and compliance program, a CE & Training Organizer, and an enterprise learning management portal for pharmacists and prescribers. TRC also provides a variety of education and advisory services to help technicians including Pharmacy Technician’s Letter and Pharmacy Technicians University, the only online interactive training and certification courses to support the 2020 requirement. Close to 500,000 healthcare professionals rely on TRC’s advisory and education service to give them the concise, unbiased, timely information that they need to help improve medication use, prevent medication errors, and improve overall patient care, quality, and outcomes.
Sources:
1 - 2: http://www.nehi.net/bendthecurve/sup/documents/Medication_Errors_%20Brief.pdf
