May 8, 2013
North Carolina’s nursing homes are required to report data to the Medication Error Quality Initiative, and 28,000 medication errors were among the information reported from fiscal 2007 to 2009.
Rishi Desai, a graduate student in the Division of Pharmaceutical Outcomes and Policy, examined these data, finding that 11 percent of reported medication errors involved an individual’s transition into nursing home care. In further analysis of the data, it was observed that these errors occurring during patient transitions had a higher likelihood of resulting in patient harm compared to errors occurring later.
Desai received a Graduate Education Advancement Board Impact Award from the Graduate School at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in recognition of his work. Each year the Graduate School recognizes graduate students whose research is of exceptional benefit to North Carolina. This year forty-one Impact Awards were given out.
Working in collaboration with UNC-Chapel Hill’s Cecil G. Sheps Center for Health Services Research, Desai was able to identify patient and treatment factors that increased risk of a medication error. His research findings give nursing home administrators key information toward preventing future errors—and toward enhancing the quality and safety controls surrounding medication use among nursing home residents.
“His work has been widely cited and is being used to help identify ways to reduce medication errors,” said Richard Hansen, PhD, who serves on Desai’s dissertation committee.
Desai received a BS in pharmacy from Sardar Patel University in India and an MS in pharmacy administration from the University of Houston. After receiving his PhD from the School in May 2013, Desai is pursuing a postdoctoral fellowship at Harvard University in Boston.
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