ASSEMBLY, No. 3771

STATE OF NEW JERSEY

209th LEGISLATURE

INTRODUCED OCTOBER 3, 2001

Sponsored by:

Assemblyman JOSEPH R. MALONE, III

District 30 (Burlington, Monmouth and Ocean)

Assemblywoman LORETTA WEINBERG

District 37 (Bergen)

Co-Sponsored by:

Assemblyman Doria

SYNOPSIS

    Establishes hospital-based medication monitoring pilot program in DHSS; appropriates $75,000.

CURRENT VERSION OF TEXT

    As introduced.

An Act concerning monitoring of medications in hospitals, and making an appropriation.

    Be It Enacted by the Senate and General Assembly of the State of New Jersey:

    1. There is established a hospital-based medication monitoring pilot program in the Department of Health and Senior Services.

    a. The Commissioner of Health and Senior Services shall provide a grant to an acute care hospital in the State to implement the pilot program pursuant to the provisions of this act. The hospital shall establish a model medication ordering and administration system which includes the following:

    (1) computerized on-line physician ordering of all medications through several input modes to accommodate the capabilities, convenience and comfort of the ordering physicians and other prescribers;

    (2) generation of immediate alerts to prescribers and pharmacists for orders that are outside the expected norm, contraindicated for the patient, or for which a lower-cost and equally effective substitute is available;

    (3) integration with pharmacy inventory and tracking, as well as with the hospital's financial systems;

    (4) generation of auto-alerts to nurses through small portable devices when medications are due to be administered;

    (5) integration with bar-coding identification of both the patient, by means of a wristband, and the actual medications; and

    (6) integration with the patient's on-line medical record.

    b. The commissioner shall require the hospital that implements the pilot program to periodically report to the commissioner on the establishment of the program and the impact the program has had in reducing medication errors in the hospital.

    c. The commissioner shall report to the Governor and Legislature on the pilot program within one year of its implementation and make any recommendations the commissioner deems appropriate to expand the program to other hospitals or health care facilities in the State.

    2. There is appropriated $75,000 from the General Fund to the Department of Health and Senior Services to provide a grant to Holy Name Hospital to establish the model medication ordering and administration system provided for in this act.

    3. This act shall take effect immediately and shall expire upon the submission of the report by the commissioner pursuant to section 1 of this act.

STATEMENT

    This bill establishes a hospital-based medication monitoring pilot program in the Department of Health and Senior Services.

    Under the provisions of the bill, the Commissioner of Health and Senior Services shall provide a grant to Holy Name Hospital to implement the pilot program, and the hospital shall be required to establish a model medication ordering and administration system which includes the following:

    (1) computerized on-line physician ordering of all medications through several input modes to accommodate the capabilities, convenience and comfort of the ordering physicians and other prescribers;

    (2) generation of immediate alerts to prescribers and pharmacists for orders that are outside the expected norm, contraindicated for the patient, or for which a lower-cost and equally effective substitute is available;

    (3) integration with pharmacy inventory and tracking, as well as with the hospital's financial systems;

    (4) generation of auto-alerts to nurses through small portable devices when medications are due to be administered;

    (5) integration with bar-coding identification of both the patient, by means of a wristband, and the actual medications; and

    (6) integration with the patient's on-line medical record.

    The bill appropriates $75,000 to the department for the grant to Holy Name Hospital to implement the pilot program.

    The purpose of the pilot program is to eliminate medication errors made by prescribers, pharmacists and nursing staff in the hospital by creating automated safety systems in the hospital that implement safe practices at the medication delivery level. The medication ordering and administration system established in this pilot program may serve as a model system for other acute care hospitals in the State.