Safety in Medication Use

Medication Safety Overview

An estimated 1 in 20 patients are admitted to the hospital due to problems with their medication and 1 in 100 hospitalized patients are harmed due to medication errors during their stay. The prescribing of medications is the most common health care intervention and medication safety is relevant to all health care professionals and patients, in all health care settings.

Safety in Medication Use

Provides an overview of the theory and practice of medication safety, summarizing the international literature and practical suggestions for local practice. Each chapter is written by one or more authors from around the world who were chosen because of their standing in their field. The book covers three broad areas: problems in the medication use process, approaches to understanding and resolving them, and putting solutions into practice.

Topics Discussed

Measuring medication errors, improvement science, safety culture, incident reporting and feedback approaches, educational interventions, communication between health care professionals, interventions for safer work systems, electronic prescribing and medication administration record systems, innovations in dispensing, patient involvement in medication safety.

Chapter Structure

Each chapter is a primer on the topic, drawing on the international literature, with the chapters on solutions followed by an expert summary of the implications for practice. This valuable resource describes an international body of work that shows not only how widespread medication errors are, but also discusses interventions that can reduce such errors to improve patient safety.