Purpose The purpose of these guidelines is to assist practitioners in improving their antineoplastic medication-use system and error-prevention programs. They supplement ASHP’s Guidelines on Preventing Medication Errors in Hospitals and address error prevention within diverse health care settings. Further, these guidelines provide updated general guidance to include a standard definition of a “...

Background Medication errors are the single most preventable cause of patient harm that occurs in a medical facility. From prescription to administration, there is a vast amount of opportunity for errors to occur. This emphasizes the need to evaluate the extent of medication error in the elderly as medication errors are estimated to be the fifth most common cause of death among hospitalised eld...

entaNYL transdermal patches (Duragesic and other generic brands) are a mainstay in the treatment of Fchronic pain, yet the US health care community and patients alike continue to face challenges regarding the safe use of this product. Despite numerous warnings from drug manufacturers, patient safety groups, and even the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), the Institute for Safe Medication Pract...

BACKGROUND Solid medical waste (SMW) in households is perceived to pose minimal risks to the public compared to SMW generated from healthcare facilities. While waste from healthcare facilities is subject to recommended safety measures to minimize risks to human health and the environment, similar waste in households is often untreated and co-mingled with household waste which ends up in landfil...

The Medical Journal of Australia ISSN: 0025729X 18 January 2010 192 2 63-64 ©The Medical Journal of Australia 2010 www.mja.com.au Editorials reduce preventable harm to patients. However, a have not been measurably reduced. Many ackn barriers to change are embedded in the culture a health care. So, 15 years after the QAHCS and 5 follow-up editorial in the Journal by Wilson and Van noting that he...

BACKGROUND Harmful medication errors, or preventable adverse drug events (ADEs), are a prominent quality and cost issue in healthcare. Injectable medications are important therapeutic agents, but they are associated with a greater potential for serious harm than oral medications. The national burden of preventable ADEs associated with inpatient injectable medications and the associated medical ...

OBJECTIVE We sought to assess the epidemiology of medication errors (MEs) and adverse drug events (ADEs) in a psychiatric hospital. METHODS We conducted a 6-month prospective observational study in a 172-bed academic psychiatric hospital. Errors and ADEs were found by way of chart review, staff reports and pharmacy intervention reports. Physicians rated incidents as to the presence of injury,...

BACKGROUND Despite the worldwide growing attention to patient safety, Tunisia has no data on the magnitude and consequences of hospital adverse events (AEs). OBJECTIVE To estimate the incidence, nature and consequences of AEs and preventable AEs in a university hospital in Tunisia. DESIGN AND SETTING We opted for a two-stage retrospective medical record review of 620 inpatients admitted dur...

PURPOSE Adverse drug events, especially those that may have been preventable, are among the most serious concerns about medication use in nursing homes. We studied the incidence and preventability of adverse drug events and potential adverse drug events in nursing homes. METHODS We performed a cohort study of all long-term care residents of 18 community-based nursing homes in Massachusetts du...

PURPOSE The purpose of this paper is to inform healthcare providers and healthcare facility leadership about the statutory, administrative, criminal, and tort law implications related to preventable harms from unsafe injection practices. DESIGN/METHODOLOGY/APPROACH Review of legal theory and precedents. FINDINGS The law can address disputes over unsafe injection practices in a variety of wa...