Medication errors occur frequently and are associated with significant clinical and financial consequences.1 Health care technologies are increasingly being introduced into the health care system to improve the efficiency, quality, and safety of medical care. Because medication errors can occur at any point during the medication use process (see example in Figure 7-1 on page 104), the implement...

BACKGROUND Patient safety is a national and international priority with medication safety earmarked as both a prevalent and high-risk area of concern. To date, medication safety research has focused overwhelmingly on institutional based care provided by paid healthcare professionals, which often has little applicability to the home care setting. This critical gap in our current understanding of...

Introduction: Increasing self-treatment is one of the most important problems in the health system most importantly during pregnancy. Objective: To determine the status of self-treatment and its related factors in pregnant women in Ahwaz. Materials and Methods: This cross-sectional analytical study evaluates the status of self-treatment during pregnancy for 400 women who have gave birth in th...

BACKGROUND One-third of all medication errors causing harm to hospitalized patients occur in the medication preparation and administration phase, which is predominantly a nursing activity. To monitor, evaluate and improve the quality and safety of this process, evidence-based quality indicators can be used. OBJECTIVES The aim of study was to identify evidence-based quality indicators (structu...

BACKGROUND 'Organisational governance'--the systems, processes, behaviours and cultures by which an organisation leads and controls its functions to achieve its objectives--is seen as an important influence on patient safety. The features of 'good' governance remain to be established, partly because the relationship between governance and safety requires more investigation. AIMS To describe e...

Reports of preventable illness due to medication errors are widespread in Canada. However, quantifying the magnitude of the problem has been hampered by a lack of measurement tools. Canadian-specific indicators, or performance measures, of safe medication use do not exist. The objective of this study was to develop a set of Canadian consensus-based indicators for the safe use of medication for ...

QUALITY ISSUE Omitting time-critical medications leads to delays in treatment and may result in patient harm. INITIAL ASSESSMENT Published studies show that omission of prescribed medication doses is common. Although most are inconsequential, up to 86% of omitted medications place patients at some risk of harm. SOLUTION Funding was obtained to develop a medication safety package to facilita...