The Health Advocate – November 2021

Page 52

ANTHONY RAMOS Managing Director IntelliLearn

CLAIRE COPE National Director, Clinical Education & Governance IntelliLearn

“For many years medication errors were the second most frequently reported incident type after falls in Australian hospitals.”

Improving medication safety in the Australian hospital sector Med+Safe®: A cost effective, evidence-based solution for improved patient safety

Improving Medication Safety in the Australian Clinical Setting

standard is to ensure that clinicians safely prescribe,

Medication Safety is a global phenomenon. On the

dispense and administer appropriate medicines,

29th March 2017, the World Health Organization launched an initiative to reduce severe avoidable medication-associated harm in all countries by 50% within five years. The Australian Commission on Safety and Quality in Health Care has identified Medication Safety as one of the eight National Safety and Quality Health Service (NSQHS) Standards. The NSQHS Standards provide a nationally consistent statement about the level of care consumers can expect from health services.

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The Health Advocate • NOVEMBER 2021

Specifically, the intention of this Medication Safety

and monitor medicine use. The standard also aims to ensure that consumers are informed about medicines, and understand their own medicine needs and risks. For many years medication errors were the second most frequently reported incident type after falls in Australian hospitals. Medication errors accounted for a quarter of all incidents in Australia’s public hospitals. 20% of errors resulted in some degree of harm to patients and 3% resulted in significant harm.1 By 2013 medication administration had


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