Primer Offers Strategies/Resources for Preventing Medication Errors

The Agency for Healthcare Research & Quality has posted a Patient Safety Primer via its online Patient Safety Network detailing key evidence-based strategies that providers can use to prevent medication errors.

From computerized order entry to clearer prescription labeling and adherence to the “Five Rights” of medication safety, AHRQ’s Primer details improvment tactics that providers can implement at all four stages of the medication usage process – prescribing, transcribing, dispensing and administration. In addition, the Primer discusess the impact of known risk factors for adverse drug events (ADEs) including limited health literacy and numeracy; certain patient traits, like age; high-alert medications, including look-alike/sound alike medicines; and transitions of care.

AHRQ’s Patient Safety Primers guide you through key concepts in patient safety. Each Primer defines a topic, offers background information on its epidemiology and context, and highlights relevant content from the agency’s PSNet and WebM&M online resources.

To learn more and to read AHRQ’s Patient Safety Primer on medication errors in its entirety, click here.