Medication errors occur in all health care settings. Findings from several studies of large numbers of hospitalized patients indicated that each year many patients are harmed, injured or experienced Adverse drug events as a result of medication errors.
Achieving medicine safety is focussed on one, thing, reducing preventable harm caused by medicines. This means drastically reducing avoidable deaths, hospitalizations and quality-of-life impacts caused by medicines. An overhaul of clinical governance in primary care and aged care is needed to achieve this, supported by transparent, objective and clear national medicine safety targets, quality indicators and benchmarks. Improving effectiveness and quality use of medicines requires more informed and empowered consumers and health professionals. Effectively engaging all partners and turbocharging use of digital health technology is needed to achieve this. Similarly, improving health literacy is the key to empowering consumers. While too many incidents still occur, every country is doing well to reduce the harm caused by medicines inside their hospitals. These gains have been achieved through long-term system and cultural changes.
Medication error The most commonly used definition is that given by the National Coordinating Council for Medication Error Reporting and Prevention (NCCMERP) in the USA, which defines medication errors as:
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“Any preventable event that may cause or lead to inappropriate medication use or patient harm while the medication is in the control of the healthcare professional, patient, Or consumer; such events must be related to professional practice, healthcare products, procedures, and systems.”
Note: The Medication Errors include the Intercepted Errors (near-miss).
