Introducing the “Druggle”: Quality Improvement Project to Improve Prescribing in a Tertiary Neonatal Unit

Background & Objective: A consistently high number of prescription errors identified via our Datix system in our tertiary neonatal unit (NNU) led to medication errors being listed as a red risk on our Risk Register. The weekly “Druggle” was implemented to improve the standards of prescribing and medication administration.

Methods: Prescription charts were reviewed at random on a weekly basis to assess adherence to local and national prescribing standards. The five minute ‘Druggle’ was presented weekly during the morning multidisciplinary handover huddle. This highlighted examples of good and poor prescriptions anonymously to identify common pitfalls. Learning points were shared and a ‘Prescriber of the Week’ was identified. Following it’s introduction, prescriptions were assessed weekly to determine whether the ‘Druggle’ resulted in improvements in prescribing practice.

Results: Qualitative and quantitative feedback showed improvement within certain elements of prescribing on a week-to-week basis as the audit period progressed, suggesting a positive impact following introduction of the “Druggle”.

Conclusion: Through introduction of the “Druggle” we have identified a successful rewards based process to improve prescribing standards in the neonatal unit and thereby improve patient safety and reduce medication errors. We propose to continue this process on a 6 monthly basis through regular election of auditors/ prescribing champions to continue to improve prescribing practice on the NNU.