Wolters Kluwer, a recognized leader in presenting information on healthcare, legal, tax and accounting, corporate compliance, and ESG has underlined the significance of trusted clinical technology and evidence-based solutions crucial in decision-making and outcome generation within healthcare. They emphasize on clinical effectiveness, learning, research, and safety. Businesses vary in size and professional needs and Wolters Kluwer has catered to all such requirements by serving law firms, corporate legal departments, and General Counsel offices with value-driving data-controlled tools.
By streamlining legal and regulatory research, they build workflows that bring value to organizations and contribute towards forming more transparent societies. One such urgent issue is drug diversion which jeopardizes patient safety by preventing them from receiving prescribed medications. It can even risk potential exposure to blood-borne pathogens. Drug diversion, though not a new phenomenon, demands evolving methods to discern, investigate, and address these events.
Drug diversion refers to the act of deviating prescribed medication from its planned path, that is, from the manufacturer to the patient or the facility. It could occur even before the medication reaches the healthcare facility. The risk to patient safety amplifies when medical professionals illegitimately procure these medications for their personal consumption which also bears a financial impact on hospitals.
A case of alleged drug diversion from Medford, Oregon, highlights the consequences of drug diversion on individual patients, their families, and the hospital. With 44 identified patients and 16 deaths linked to bloodstream infections, a nurse has been accused of replacing narcotics with tap water from 2002 to 2023.
The detection of drug diversion can be a complex task. Often, healthcare professionals are either in denial, fear retribution or avoid being involved in an investigation. In order to counteract this, organizations can leverage the benefits of electronic surveillance systems like Sentri7 Drug Diversion which use machine learning and raise alerts to support identification of suspected drug diversion.
Infection preventionists (IPs) hold a critical role in identifying unusual infection clusters or outbreaks. IPs are the hospital’s resource for identifying disease transmission mechanisms and frequently perform surveillance. They may notice an increase in bloodborne infections without known risk factors in hospitalized patients. These are often red flags which require health department notifications.
In several healthcare facilities, the role of the infection prevention and control (IPC) department remains uncertain. IPs might only learn of an investigation when it’s necessary to inform exposed patients. IPs are often left out in the formation of the drug diversion committee due to time constraints or lack of perceived benefit.
Hospitals often have a pharmacy department devoted to addressing drug diversion which reports to senior leadership. A steering committee comprising risk management, legal, nursing, compliance, among others, create goals, policies, and procedures. In events requiring escalation, leadership support is crucial. A strong, coordinated response to drug diversion necessitates participation from security, risk management, occupational health, medicine, IPC, etc.
Engaging the IP team for their knowledge and expertise ensures a well-rounded approach to a drug diversion program. This underscores the facility’s dedication towards accountability, transparency, and demonstrates interest in being a high-reliability organization. This proactive approach can help prevent the devastating measures that drug diversion can cause, akin to the case of David Kwiatkowski, a radiology technician convicted of causing a multi-state outbreak between 2003 -2007, resulting in 45 patients contracting hepatitis C.