Pharmacy Daily | Push to slash med errors

AUSTRALIA has joined the global push to halve medication errors within five years, aligning with the World Health Organization's drive to save lives and reduce the harm caused by medication mix-ups, says the Australian Commission on Safety and Quality in Health Care.

The WHO's third Global Patient Safety Challenge, called 'Medication Without Harm', aims to help countries strengthen their systems for preventing medication errors, which are estimated to cost US$42 billion annually -- with people in low-income countries disproportionately affected.

"Medication errors are a problem in Australia, as they are in other countries," said the Commission.

"Previous estimates indicate between 2% and 3% of all Australian hospital admissions are medication-related.

"This suggests at least 230,000 admissions annually in this country are caused by patients taking too much or too little of a medicine, or taking the wrong medicine -- with an estimated annual cost of at least $1.2 billion."

Human and other factors affect how medicines are prescribed, dispensed or administered, and improving medication safety is a key area of focus for the Commission, which facilitated this week's WHO regional campaign launch in Brisbane with the Australian Government Department of Health.

Commission ceo Adjunct Professor Debora Picone said unsafe medication practices and medication errors were a leading cause of injury and avoidable harm in health care systems across the world.

"Some people in our community with poorer health are taking four or more different medicines at once, sometimes under the supervision of a number of GPs, hospitals and specialists," Picone said in the lead-up to the meeting.

Tools to underpin medication safety in hospitals include standard inpatient and specialised medication charts, 'Tall man lettering' norms and standardised terms and abbreviations.

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