Medication safety has always been an important issue, but the Institute of Medicine's (IOM) recent report showing that preventable medication errors injure at least 1.5 million Americans annually illustrates the seriousness of this predicament. The authors of the IOM report, Preventing Medication Errors: The Quality Chasm Series, even acknowledge that this is likely a conservative assessment of drug safety gaps. The report noted that each year 530,000 preventable adverse drug events—injuries due to medication—affect outpatient Medicare patients, 380,000 to 450,000 occur in hospitals, and another 800,000 in long-term care facilities.

While the Food & Drug Administration has always been deeply concerned with drug safety, the organization is taking new and improved measures to pay closer attention to this issue, said Scott Gottlieb, M.D., Deputy Commissioner for Medical and Scientific Affairs at FDA.

Medication safety experts nationwide were dismayed but not surprised upon hearing the tragic news that three premature infants died after receiving a fatal dose of heparin at Methodist Hospital in Indianapolis. Three other pediatric patients who also received inappropriate doses of heparin were transferred to Riley Hospital for Children in Indianapolis where they were reported to be in critical condition at press time.

Tracking medication errors in an inpatient hospital setting is fairly common. But what about errors that occur when patients self-administer, or when parents administer drugs to their children at home? Who checks to see if patients are being compliant, or if prescribing errors have been made? Did the family members who are charged with dispensing to children understand the instructions? Or are they doing things doctors and pharmacists are not expecting them to?

Physical and personal trainers recommend supplements and OTC products to their clients without considering possible interactions with other supplements or meds. By becoming an information resource to trainers, pharmacists can take the lead in promoting safe use of these products.

The Joint Commission's anticoagulant safety goal goes into effect Jan. 1, 2009. Physicians, pharmacists, and nurses at health-care systems around the country are collaborating to improve best practices and to put more stringent measures in place.

Online prescription drug trafficking, abuse, and availability are the targets of the newly passed Ryan Haight Online Pharmacy Consumer Protection Act.

When adults and children mistakenly swallowed Benadryl Itch Stopping Gel, they ended up in the emergency room.

Hospitals throughout California are embracing smart pump technology as a way to reduce error and save lives. Among them are The Little Company of Mary (Torrance), Torrance Memorial Medical Center, and the Kaiser Permanente South Bay Medical Center in Harbor City.