Prevalence of Evidence-Based Safe Medication Practices in Small Rural Hospitals

This issue brief presents the findings of a national survey whose purpose was to describe the prevalence of evidence-based safe medication practices, including the use of voluntary medication error reporting, in the nation’s smallest hospitals. The survey included questions related to all phases of the medication use process— prescribing, documenting, dispensing by a pharmacist (medication acquisition by nursing), administering, and monitoring (Figure 1).