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This conference focuses on reducing medication errors and resulting harm in line with the WHO Medication without Harm Programme goal to reduce the level of severe, avoidable harm related to medications by 50% over the next five years. The programme will cover prioritising high risk medications and high risk patient groups to enable your interventions to have the highest impact on patient care and reduction in patient harm. Clinicians and pharmacists, managers, and medication safety officers and leads will be able to reflect on medication safety issues that have arisen as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic, understand current national developments and debate and discuss key issues and areas they are facing in improving and monitoring medication safety, and reducing medication errors and harm in hospitals. There will also be a focus on prescribing error following the recent HSIB investigation and the January 2021 investigation into prescribing error in children.
“Medication errors occur when weak medication systems and/or human factors such as fatigue, poor environmental conditions or staff shortages affect prescribing, transcribing, dispensing, administration and monitoring practices, which can then result in severe harm, disability and even death. Multiple interventions to address the frequency and impact of medication errors have already been developed, yet their implementation is varied.”
World Health Organisation
“When errors occur in prescribing high-risk medications for older patients with multiple medical problems, there is a significant risk of serious harm. High-risk medicines are those which risk significant patient harm or death when used in error.”
Healthcare Safety Investigation Branch
This conference will enable you to:
- Network with colleagues who are working to reduce medication errors
- Understand how to reduce medication error during a pandemic: Covid-19 challenges
- Reflect on the perspective of a patient who has experienced a medication error
- Develop an understanding of medication safety issues that have arisen during the Covid-19 pandemic
- Monitoring medication safety from a distance with increased remote monitoring
- Understand high risk drugs, high risk parts of the medicines use process and patients with the highest vulnerabilities
- Reflect on how you prioritise interventions in areas that will have the most impact
- Identifying and reducing high-risk prescribing errors in hospital
- Implement a medication error reduction programme and monitor medication safety metrics
- Explore how can an understanding of human factors help to reduce medication error and improve medication safety
- Effectively manage a medication incident investigation and ensure change occurs, including the duty of candour and involving patients
- Reflect on case studies of reducing medication error in high risk areas including insulin, anticoagulants, children and frail older people
- Self assess and reflect on your own practice
- Gain CPD accreditation points contributing to professional development and revalidation evidence
