ABOUT SMM

• Objectives
  
• Programme Structure
• Steering Group Membership

About Us

The Safe Medication Management (SMM) Programme aims to greatly reduce the number of New Zealanders harmed each year by medication errors and adverse drug events in our hospitals, general practices, aged care facilities and across the entire health and disability sector. Medication errors and adverse drug events affect an unacceptable number of New Zealanders each year, with some resulting in permanent disabilities or deaths.

The SMM Programme was established by the Ministerial appointed Quality Improvement Committee as an initiative to improve patient safety by reducing harm to patients from adverse drug events.

The SMM Programme is working with clinicians (including doctors, nurses, pharmacists and physiotherapists) to develop systems, which will help prevent medication errors and adverse drug events from happening. For the SMM Programme to be successful we need the support of the entire health and disability sector.

While the programme will initially focus on hospitals and their interface with primary care, it will also develop systems to allow the programme to extend across the entire health and disability sector.

Objectives

The programme's objectives are to:

• Reduce the number of medication errors and adverse drug events in New Zealand
• Reduce the number of patients who are permanently disabled or die as a result of adverse drug events
• Reduce the costs associated with remedial treatment of patient injury caused by adverse drug events