EAHP’s Special Interest Group shares recommendations for lowering medication errors

 

EAHP's Special Interest Group shares recommendations for lowering medication errors

21 March 2023

 

Tomorrow, the European Association of Hospital Pharmacists (EAHP) will open the doors to its 27th Congress. The Special Interest Group (SIG) for the Investigation of Medication Errors in Intensive Care Units (financially supported by BD) will use this opportunity to share its findings. Through the work carried out over the past 1,5 years the SIG developed and prioritised policy recommendations to enhance medication safety which may contribute to improving patient safety and reducing medication errors in ICUs across Europe. These can be found in the report that the SIG released today.

Medication errors are recognised as a major patient safety problem. They occur in all stages of the medication management process and have the potential to lead to patient harm, prolonged hospital stays, readmission or even death. Different initiatives to improve medication safety in hospitals have been taken to reach the World Health Organization's target of globally reducing avoidable harm. Patients admitted to ICUs are more susceptible to medication errors due to the complexity of the treatment they receive.

The SIG was tasked with determining the prevalence of medication errors, investigating potential contributing factors to medication errors, identifying prevention strategies in ICUs, exploring patient safety culture and medication safety within ICUs, examining prevention strategies for improving medication safety in the ICU environment and developing and prioritising policy recommendations to support medication safety improvements across Europe.

Hospital pharmacists attending EAHP's Congress can join the SIG dissemination session on 22 March from 10.30 to 11.15 in Auditorium III & IV at the Lisbon Congress Centre. Bryony Dean Franklin and Suzanne McCarthy – two of the members of the SIG – will present the results of the literature review, the survey, the focus group discussions and the Delphi panel that the SIG conducted. The session is facilitated by Raisa Laaksonen who together with Virginia Silvari co-chaired the SIG.

 

 

ENDS

For further information contact info[at]eahp[dot]eu | 0032 2 669 2513 

 

The European Association of Hospital Pharmacists (EAHP) is a not-for-profit organisation that defends the interests of more than 25.000 European hospital pharmacists from its 36 full and associate member organisations. EAHP works to develop knowledge on hospital pharmacy to ease the improvement of care and outcomes for patients in the hospital setting. The Association achieves this through science, practice, research, education, as well as sharing best-practice and responsibility with other healthcare professionals. More information about EAHP is available HERE.

2. Read the report of EAHP's SIG for the Investigation of Medication Errors in Intensive Care Units HERE

3. EAHP's Special Interest Groups gather and evaluate the evidence in specific, innovative and novel fields of hospital pharmacy practice with the aim to address patient needs and to advance the profession. Learn more about EAHP's SIGs HERE