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This conference focuses on reducing medication errors and the level of severe, avoidable harm related to medications. The conference focuses on 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. The conference which aims to bring together clinicians and pharmacists, managers, and medication safety officers and leads will reflect on medication safety issues that have arisen as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic, help you to understand current national developments, and allow you to debate and discuss key issues and areas in improving and monitoring medication safety, reducing medication errors and harm in hospitals.
“More than 237 million medication errors are made every year in England, the avoidable consequences of which cost the NHS upwards of £98 million and more than 1700 lives every year, indicate national estimates… Errors are made at every stage of the process, with over half (54%) made at the point of administration and around 1 in 5 made during prescribing (21%). Dispensing accounts for 16% of the total…. Around 1 in 5 medication errors are made in hospitals… The researchers calculated that “definitely avoidable” medication errors cost the NHS nearly £98.5 million every year and 1708 lives… Effective targeting of finite healthcare resources to reduce medication errors requires understanding of where errors cause the most burden.”
“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.”
“During the coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic, since March 2020, there has been a significant decrease in the number of patient safety incidents being reported…The main categories of errors reported were those involving medication errors, such as the wrong drug, strength or formulation… 10.3% of incidents reported included Covid-19 work pressures as other important factors contributing to incidents”
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 lived experience of the human impact of medication errors
- 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
- Explore how can an understanding of human factors help to reduce medication error and improve medication safety
- Effectively manage a medication incident investigation, including involving patients and the legal aspects, to ensure change occurs
- Learn about what is being done to improve medication safety in non medical prescribing
- Reflect on case studies with the aim of reducing medication error in high risk areas including palliative care and Parkinson’s Disease
- Self assess and reflect on your own practice
- Gain CPD accreditation points contributing to professional development and revalidation evidence
