The guidelines aim to address persistent medication safety risks that have continued to cause patient harm despite repeated warnings, according to a Feb. 17 news release from the organization.
Modeled after the ISMP’s hospital-focused best practices that launched in 2014, the new initiative aims to provide a structured approach to improving medication safety in outpatient settings. Some of the key recommendations include:
- Preventing wrong patient errors in prescription filling and vaccine administration.
- Expanding barcode scanning to enhance accuracy in medication and vaccine dispensation.
- Reducing errors associated with inadvertent daily dosing of methotrexate for non-cancer conditions.
- Using patient weight to verify dosing for weight-based medications.
- Leveraging technology to minimize errors in restocking returned medications.
- Implementing safeguards to ensure accuracy in vaccine preparation and administration.
