The Centre for Social Services SIBÍRKA for children and adults is the first facility in Slovakia and in the EU and neighbouring countries (Hungary, the Czech Republic, Poland, Austria) that started using a new innovative medication dosing principle for its clients. This MSDL pilot project was launched at the Centre for Social Services SIBÍRKA in Bratislava in October 2019. The center provides social services for 40 clients.

MSDL

(medication dosing monitoring system) is a medication management tool that dispenses oral medicines according to the day of the week and the time of day when they should be taken.

The healthcare staff of the Centre for Social Services SIBÍRKA considers the MSDL system highly effective, safe and fast in administering medicines for its clients. MSDL, the medication dispenser, is a medication aid with a hermetic seal and the possibility to dose medicines for 7 or 28 days. Thanks to MSDL, employees of the Centre for Social Services SIBÍRKA can use their time more meaningfully, for example by working directly with the client, or by organising and carrying out other work activities.

MSDL – medication card saved nursing staff three hours of work per day when preparing medicines for 40 clients, which is 90 hours per month and 1,080 hours per year. Another advantage of MSDL is that when emergency services 112 is called for a client, paramedics or a doctor immediately get information from the nurse about which medicines the client takes, and other benefits.

The Centre for Social Services SIBÍRKA thanks its employee PhDr. Bc. Marcel Tóth and his long-standing practice abroad for enabling this MSDL aid to be used in the centre, which speeds up and simplifies medication handling during preparation and consequently improves the quality of nursing care for clients.

Thanks are also due to the management of CSS Sibirka, namely Director Mgr. Martina Betinová, Head Nurse Mgr. Andrea Kovárová and ward nurse Mgr. Simona Vašková, for integrating MSDL into their facility and participating in this innovative project. Special thanks are also due to Rector of Univerzity Sv. Alžbety professor MUDr. Vladimír Krčméry, DrSC, for his support, cooperation and his great openness, and to supervisor Doc. Ing. Anton Doktorov, PhD., mim. prof.

MSDL Project Objectives

  • The aim of the MSDL pilot project is to create and improve services for social service facilities, homes for social services in the area of improving nursing care, namely in the form of medication administration to clients living in their institutions. A further goal of the project is to identify elderly clients in their home environment, because they take many medications and there is a high risk of overdose.
  • Improvement of communication among staff in DD or DSS, the attending physicians of clients, specialist physicians, pharmacies and other professionals who come to a facility to visit the patient, and so on.
  • Simple control by the head nurse in the facility – whether patients are taking regular medicines, or if patients do not take regular medicines, how a competent staff member resolves this issue, and so on.
  • Prevention of a patient taking medication when the doctor has ended pharmacological treatment and, despite this, the discontinued medication continues to be taken.
  • Patient safety in the administration and use of medicines, as older people have many prescribed medications (polypharmacy).
  • Savings for staff in administration connected with medication administration.
  • Reduced risk of medication errors, especially overdose or underdose.
  • Reduced time demand for nurses when preparing and administering medicines in DD and DSS.
  • Medicines in the mentioned facilities can also be administered to clients by caregivers, as pharmacies will prepare them and deliver them each month to patients in a specific facility.
  • At present, Slovakia and European states have difficulty finding nurses for these facilities.
  • Continuous medication treatment of the patient with simple medical control of treatment.
  • Archiving of the patient’s medication record based on various assessments and so on.
  • The pharmacy will deliver medicines to the facility during the monthly cycle and remove empty medicine blisters in lockable bags.

What the MSDL medication dispenser is

MSDL is aimed at:

  • improving medication administration, reducing errors made by the nurse during dosing and dispensing medicines to recipients of social services,
  • regular monitoring of medication use by recipients of social services,
  • reducing clients’ allergic reactions to medicines caused by insufficient information provided by the nurse,
  • saving healthcare staff time, reducing nurses’ stress during daily medication preparation, and reducing nurses’ administrative workload,
  • safe medication administration to clients and safe, simplified transfer of medicines within the facility,
  • easy archiving, simple client access to medication information, information for the client, simple and safe transport of the client to a hospital facility, and so on.

MSDL is intended for:

  • recipients of social services living in homes for social services,
  • clients living in home environments who are recipients of social services – ADOS,
  • recipients of social services living in specialised institutions,
  • patients hospitalised in institutions or in long-term care wards (LDCH),
  • recipients of social services living in facilities for seniors, and so on.

Project expectations

The MSDL project will have a significant impact on the target group in both the short and long term and will contribute to increasing the attractiveness of the MSDL medication card in community medication care. Although the MSDL project is primarily focused on community medication care in social and nursing facilities in Slovakia, it will have a multi-layered impact in promoting sustainability through the involvement of all social and nursing facilities in Slovakia.

Long-term sustainability of the project

The long-term sustainability of the project is directly proportional to the number of people using this service. This service is charged on the basis of an agreement for MSDL.

Project implementations in 2019 / 2020 Launch of the MSDL project at the Centre for Social Services SIBÍRKA Contacting pharmacies in Slovakia regarding the MSDL project Contacting MPSVaR SR and presenting the MSDL project to them Contacting BSK Bratislava and presenting the MSDL project to them Contacting the Ministry of Health of the Slovak Republic and presenting the MSDL project to the Pharmacy Department Contacting directors of social and nursing institutions in Bratislava Contacting Higher Territorial Offices in Slovakia regarding the MSDL project

Project implementation site: Bratislava self-governing region, and subsequently the entire Slovak Republic. Our main output of the MSDL project is to involve as many social and nursing facilities as possible across Slovakia and thereby improve medication management in these facilities.

Author: PhDr. Bc. Marcel Tóth The author is a doctoral student at Vysoká škola Zdravotníctva a Sociálnej práce sv. Alžbety v Bratislave