Preventing Medication Errors At Home

In 1996 the Institute of Medicine launched the Quality Chasm Series, a series of reports focused on assessing and improving the nation's quality of health care. Preventing Medication Errors is the newest volume in the series. Responding to the key messages in earlier volumes of the seriesâ€"To Err Is Human (2000), Crossing the Quality Chasm (2001), and Patient Safety (2004)â€"this book sets forth an agenda for improving the safety of medication use. It begins by providing an overview of the system for drug development, regulation, distribution, and use. Preventing Medication Errors also examines the peer-reviewed literature on the incidence and the cost of medication errors and the effectiveness of error prevention strategies. Presenting data that will foster the reduction of medication errors, the book provides action agendas detailing the measures needed to improve the safety of medication use in both the short- and long-term. Patients, primary health care providers, health care organizations, purchasers of group health care, legislators, and those affiliated with providing medications and medication- related products and services will benefit from this guide to reducing medication errors.

Your home probably has some sort of pain relief medication, something to combat bouts of allergies, and maybe a few vitamins or supplements from the local health store. And then there are the prescribed medications, the ones you're taking daily and those that you take "as needed". But do you ever wonder how your medications work, what is the best time to take each, or how that pain relief tablet, those allergy meds, and prescription drugs interact when taken at the same time? Or how your newly prescribed antibiotic reacts with that glass of wine you had with dinner? Preventing Medication Errors at Home tells you what you need to know about those medications in your house and how each can improve your health and possibly cause harm. With drug therapy being a major part of conventional medical treatment, and so many medications available over-the-counter, tens of thousands of people in the United States alone die every year from side effects related to their diabetes, pain, depression and blood-thinning medications, and roughly one million people are admitted to the hospital for drug-related issues. At least half of these disasters are preventable with proper awareness of how drugs work, how to take them properly, how to identify serious side effects, and how to avoid dangerous drug combinations. Dr. Simon Haroutounian presents an engaging, easy-to-read book to help you take responsibility for your medications. Learning how to ask the right questions before you start a new medication is likely to improve your health, and possibly save your life.

Read this book in order to learn: Why medicines often fail to produce the desired result and how such failures can be avoided How to think about drug product safety and effectiveness How the main participants in a medications use system can improve outcomes and how professional and personal values, attitudes, and ethical reasoning fit into

v. 1. Research findings -- v. 2. Concepts and methodology -- v. 3. Implementation issues -- v. 4. Programs, tools and products.

In this expanded 600+ page edition, Dr. Cohen brings together some 30 experts from pharmacy, medicine, nursing, and risk management to provide the most current thinking about the causes of medication errors and strategies to prevent them.

Experts estimate that as many as 98,000 people die in any given year from medical errors that occur in hospitals. That's more than die from motor vehicle accidents, breast cancer, or AIDSâ€"three causes that receive far more public attention. Indeed, more people die annually from medication errors than from workplace injuries. Add the financial cost to the human tragedy, and medical error easily rises to the top ranks of urgent, widespread public problems. To Err Is Human breaks the silence that has surrounded medical errors and their consequenceâ€"but not by pointing fingers at caring health care professionals who make honest mistakes. After all, to err is human. Instead, this book sets forth a national agendaâ€"with state and local implicationsâ€"for reducing medical errors and improving patient safety through the design of a safer health system. This volume reveals the often startling statistics of medical error and the disparity between the incidence of error and public perception of it, given many patients' expectations that the medical profession always performs perfectly. A careful examination is made of how the surrounding forces of legislation, regulation, and market activity influence the quality of care provided by health care organizations and then looks at their handling of medical mistakes. Using a detailed case study, the book reviews the current understanding of why these mistakes happen. A key theme is that legitimate liability concerns discourage reporting of errorsâ€"which begs the question, "How can we learn from our mistakes?" Balancing regulatory versus market-based initiatives and public versus private efforts, the Institute of Medicine presents wide-ranging recommendations for improving patient safety, in the areas of leadership, improved data collection and analysis, and development of effective systems at the level of direct patient care. To Err Is Human asserts that the problem is not bad people in health careâ€"it is that good people are working in bad systems that need to be made safer. Comprehensive and straightforward, this book offers a clear prescription for raising the level of patient safety in American health care. It also explains how patients themselves can influence the quality of care that they receive once they check into the hospital. This book will be vitally important to federal, state, and local health policy makers and regulators, health professional licensing officials, hospital administrators, medical educators and students, health caregivers, health journalists, patient advocatesâ€"as well as patients themselves. First in a series of publications from the Quality of Health Care in America, a project initiated by the Institute of Medicine

"Nurses play a vital role in improving the safety and quality of patient car -- not only in the hospital or ambulatory treatment facility, but also of community-based care and the care performed by family members. Nurses need know what proven techniques and interventions they can use to enhance patient outcomes. To address this need, the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ), with additional funding from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, has prepared this comprehensive, 1,400-page, handbook for nurses on patient safety and quality -- Patient Safety and Quality: An Evidence-Based Handbook for Nurses. (AHRQ Publication No. 08-0043)." - online AHRQ blurb, http://www.ahrq.gov/qual/nurseshdbk/

The problem of medication errors among the elderly is widespread. Improving Medication Management in Home Care: Issues and Solutions tackles this tough issue by closely examining the challenges faced in preventing medication errors in home and community care program settings and putting forth effective solutions to better manage medication use. Respected experts discuss the unique role of the pharmacist in improving patient safety, presenting a comprehensive collection of evidence-based studies featuring national and international viewpoints, cutting-edge interventions, and cost-effective procedures that control medication problems in older adults.