The recent surge in the variety and number of mobile devices used as communication end points has created a significant challenge for messaging applications that aim to reach their target recipients regardless of their location and available devices. Alerting services used to notify a potentially large number of recipients about an emergency, or other important events, are an important class of...

In 2004, the National Patient Safety Agency (NPSA) released a safety alert relating to the management and use of infusion devices in England and Wales. The alert called for the standardisation of infusion devices and a consideration of using centralised equipment systems to manage device storage. There has also been growing interest in smart-pump technology, such as dose error reduction softwar...

Magnesium sulfate (MgSO4) has been widely used in the perinatal arena for many decades. It has been used for tocolysis in the U.S. for more than 60 years. Estimations of MgSO4 use for preterm labor (less than 34 weeks of gestation) run as high as 80 percent. Magnesium sulfate is a smooth, skeletal, and cardiac muscle depressant. It is used for preterm labor because of its potential to decrease ...

In the computerized prescription order entry system, it has been pointed out that a physician's input mischoice for medicine is one of the causes of medication errors. We therefore investigated the input mischoices by physicians at the time of writing prescriptions. Subsequently, the number of input characters in a prescription order was changed to three characters from two characters. Furtherm...

Drugs are chemical substances, which can, on consumption and under certain conditions, be toxic and cause Adverse Drug Reactions (ADRs) in patients. This paper puts forth the proposition of generating a systemic alert to a clinician, at the time of placing a medication order for a patient, when the number of ADRs associated with the selected medication is significantly different from the number...

This is a methodological study with the aim to translate, adapt and assess the practicability of parts A and B of the instrument Nurses’ knowledge of high-alert medications to the Brazilian culture. The translation and cultural adaptation followed the steps recommended by the international literature. The appointed judges assessed the semantic, idiomatic, conceptual and cultural equivalences; t...

The Institute for Safe Medication Practices Canada (ISMP Canada) is an independent, not-for-profit organization founded in early 2000 with the goal of promoting medication safety. It operates a voluntary medication error-reporting program that receives error reports, in confidence, from nurses, pharmacists, physicians and the public. Most reports are analyzed and error prevention strategies are...