GetMedsRight™
The Situation
Approximately 20 million children attending public schools have chronic health conditions requiring the administration of medications during the school day. Medication error rates in the United States affect over 1.5 million people every year. These errors in schools can be tragic. Each year, children die or are harmed from medication errors in school; many medication errors go unnoticed but may seriously undermine a child’s ability to learn and function in school. Frequently, resource-constrained school nurses delegate to school employees the responsibility of administering medications to school children. Research shows that errors in medication administration are 3.1 times more likely to occur when people other than nurses dispense medications.
The Solution
GetMedsRight™ addresses the safety and well-being of children who receive medications during the school day by reducing the incidence of medication errors. The development of the GetMedsRight™ product was funded by the United States National Institutes of Health (NIH) through a Small Business Innovative Research (SBIR) grant to McCarthy Medical Marketing, Inc. It has been favorably tested nationwide by school nurses and school employees.
GetMedsRight™ is an easy-to-use online training program for School Nurses and school employees, including:
- Technical training for using the Web site and our unique medication documentation tool
- Educational training covering common diseases and conditions affecting school children
- Clinical training to teach how to safely and accurately give the most common types of medications
- Certification for each training course
The Web site allows School Nurses to schedule and track student medications. Nurses and the school employees use the unique documentation tool to add pertinent safety information to the schedule that helps reduce common medication errors in schools. With this program, School Nurses and employees who give medications can easily ensure correct medication administration and documentation. Further, nurses can print customized reports, as necessary.