Medication Safety

HealthInsight works to improve the health and safety of people receiving healthcare. Better awareness about drug safety is important for this goal. Awareness alone is not enough. We can also reduce medication errors. Some examples of possible medication errors are:

• A missed dose
• Taking a medication at the wrong time
• Not taking a medication prescribed by a provider
• Interactions between different drugs
• Prescriptions for medications that may cause harm in the elderly
• Duplicate prescriptions from different providers

Healthcare for older patients can be a challenge. They often have multiple conditions and medications. This puts them at increased risk of adverse drug events and drug interactions. Medication therapy management (MTM) reduces medication errors. It also supports longer, better quality lives for your older patients.

Community teams are joining a national effort to reduce medication errors. It is the Patient Safety and Clinical Pharmacy (PSPC) 5.0 Collaborative, brought about by the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA).

Patient Safety and Clinical Pharmacy (PSPC) 5.0 Collaborative

The PSPC Collaborative is in its fifth year (5.0). Teams share what works and doesn’t work as part of an “all-teach, all-learn” process. This approach produces results. Success stories come from across the United States. To learn more, click here.

Teams from New Mexico and Utah continue their participation in this collaborative. Now, Nevada teams join them in this work (2012). All have the same goal – improve the health of patients with multiple chronic conditions and patients with more than eight medications. How do they do this? By building systems and processes that include clinical pharmacy services with other healthcare services.

How can you help?

You can help reduce medication errors, too. Consider including clinical pharmacy services in your practice:

• Work with a local community pharmacist to provide Medication Therapy Management for your high-risk patients
• Redesign your medication reconciliation process
  • Get a more complete list of medications with over-the-counter, supplements and herbals
  • Use electronic prescribing
  • Communicate with patients’ other prescribers
• Use patient education materials that:
  • are culturally appropriate
  • target patients with low health literacy levels
  • Learn more about successful project strategies you can use on the Adverse Drug Event page.

For more information contact HealthInsight.