Aiming for greater accuracy in prescribing, dispensing and adminstration.

The Health Quality & Safety Commission works with clinicians and health service providers to improve the quality and safety of health and disability services. One of the Commission’s priorities is for district health boards (DHBs) to implement paper or electronic medicine reconciliation in all hospitals by January 2012.1 To date, 17 DHBs have implemented medicine reconciliation based on the safe medication management (SMM) standards and processes.2 Medication errors relating to prescribing, dispensing and administration were in the top 10 notified adverse events to the Accident Compensation Corporation (ACC) between 2005 and 2010.3 This ranking underscores the importance of ensuring effective systems are in place to prevent errors.