Effects of inpatient pharmacy technician staffing levels on medication safety events and metrics

Background Medication errors are a major cause of death in the United States. Burnout and fatigue from understaffing can increase the risk of medication errors. Pharmacy technician staffing shortages increase pharmacy staff members workloads. Objective This research assessed the relationship between pharmacy staffing levels, pharmacy-related risk reports, and medication safety process metrics. Method This was a retrospective, observational study at the University of Michigan Health. Data were collected from February 2020 through September 2022. Information on hospital inpatient pharmacy technician staffing levels was obtained from the organization's scheduling system. Medication safety events were voluntarily reported by staff via a voluntary risk reporting software. Reports were included for analysis if the pharmacy department was involved in the event. Medication preparation compliance data (barcode scanning) recorded in the electronic medical record were reviewed as a proxy measure of medication safety. An ordinary least squares regression model was created to examine the relationships between risk reporting and various factors including dispensing pharmacy location, total dispensing workload, and proportion of staffed shifts. Conclusion The relational database did not identify a trend between risk reporting rate and pharmacy technician staffing shortages. Results During the study period 4,034 of 15,677 (26%) medication safety risk reports met study criteria. The top pharmacy-related reasons for medication reports were dose given late (38.5%), wrong dose/volume (11.1%), dose not given (9.4%), damaged/unusable/expired (8.8%), and wrong medication (7.4%). More predictive factors were pharmacy area and total dispensing volume. This data reinforces that voluntary risk reports are qualitatively valuable but have limited quantitative utility.