Frequently Asked Questions
Where can I get more instructions on how to use MEQI?
For complete instructions please go to this link:
https://www.shepscenter.unc.edu/meqi
go to MEQI Informational website
click on “data collection”
Click on “MEQI Instruction Manual”
What is a Wrong Patient error?
Medication administered to a patient for whom the medication was not intended. – this could be for any reason including mix up of charts, mix up of labs, medication labeled incorrectly, mistook one patient for another etc.
What is a Wrong product error?
Wrong product should only be used when a patient gets a completely different medication or different brand of medication than what is prescribed. Examples: gave lisinopril instead of enalapril, gave endocet instead of percocet, gave glyburide instead of glipizide.
What is Wrong strength?
The strength of a medication is how many grams or milligrams are included in a specific tablet or pill. Wrong strength should be used only when the correct product was given, but the strength of the product was incorrect. Examples: was supposed to give one s ynthroid tablet with strength of 100 mcg but instead gave one synthroid tablet with a strength of 125 mcg.
What is Wrong Form?
Wrong form of the product is, for example, giving an extended release product instead of immediate release product. For example giving Venlafaxine 75 mg given instead of Venlafaxine XR 75 mg or giving metoprolol instead of metoprolol XL(extended release)
What is Dosage and how is it different from strength?
Dosage is the total amount of a medication you ingest at the intended time, for example 3 pills of 100 mg = 300 mg. The strength of the pills is 100mg, but the dose being given is 3 pills = 300 mg.
- Overdose/Multiple Dose: too many doses of the same medication given. Example, two different nurses do the same administration and patient gets medication twice.
- Underdose: DO NOT include dose omission here. Patient got one 100 mg pill instead of two 100 mg pills.
- Dose Omission: Dose of medication was missed entirely.
What should I do if no medication was involved in the error?
If there is no medication involved – this might not be a medication error. Only medication errors need to be submitted in MEQI system. Other types of errors should be discussed with your Director of Nursing to see how they should be reported.
What if I cannot find the exact medication in the Drug Search?
When using the drug search you are not always picking the exact dose or strength given – the drug search is based on a national database and only allows you to pick from standard packaged strengths. In some cases the strength is of the entire package. If you cannot find an exact dose, please pick the one that is closest. If you are breaking a pill and giving out a half-dose, this will not be listed, so the whole dose should be selected if a half dose is given. If medication is an under dose or overdose error, you will also be asked to type in the dose.
Why do I get asked to enter the medication given or involved in error for a dose omission?
In the form you have already recorded that your medication was a dose omission and we want to know the name of the drug that was missed. For our purposes this was the medication that was involved in the error. This is not recorded under “intended” as this is only for wrong product, wrong strength or wrong form errors. For dose omission medications – the medication involved in error is the drug that was NOT given. Please do not use the “help” function to type in “none” or “no drug given” as then we do not know which drug was missed.
How do I enter errors that get repeated multiple times (same error happened for 10 days without being caught)?
This type of error gets entered as a single error incident. On part 2 of the form you will be asked if this error is repeated. If you check “yes” then you will be asked to note how many times the error was repeated.
How do I enter an error where the same error happened for several different medications (person missed all morning meds)?
If there were five different medications and all were missed then this would be 5 separate dose omission errors – even though they all happened at the same time to the same person. Right now each medication dose omission would need to be entered as its own single error incident. We understand that this is time-consuming to enter some of the same information repeatedly and we are working on a technical solution to this problem.
Other Questions?? Please contact us to ask for assistance.
Charlotte Williams919-966-7927
Stephanie Pierson919-966-5943
Email both of us at meqi@shepscenter.unc.edu