• E-mail
• Print
• RSS

New book highlights patient safety strategies

Patient Safety Monitor Alert, March 9, 2004

Want to receive articles like this one in your inbox? Subscribe to Patient Safety Monitor Alert!

The U.S. Pharmacopeia (USP) has published a new book that highlights different strategies that hospitals use to prevent medication errors. The strategies outlined in the book, "Advancing Patient Safety in U.S. Hospitals: Basic Strategies for Success" are based on information reported to the USP through MEDMARX, its interactive, anonymous medication-error reporting system.

The book features case studies about several hospitals. The USP interviewed more than two dozen health care administrators and practitioners for the report. The first-person accounts led to 10 key recommendations for improving medication safety in U.S. health facilities.

Each recommendation underscores the importance of communication and teamwork. The top three recommendations are

1) Engage the CEO, administrators, and medical director in medication safety efforts. This

involvement will help your organization develop the culture and policy changes that are necessary to ensure that medication safety is a priority.

2) Adopt a nonpunitive policy for reporting potential and actual medication errors. These policies build trust and eliminate the fears that prevent error reporting.

3) Provide incentives for your medication safety reporting system. Educate staff members about the importance of error reporting and develop ways to praise staff for reporting unsafe circumstances and events.

Want to receive articles like this one in your inbox? Subscribe to Patient Safety Monitor Alert!

• E-mail to a Colleague
• Print
• RSS
• Archive