Safe Medication Management Programme to reduce Adverse Drug Events

The Safe Medication Management Programme has been put in place by the Ministerial appointed Quality Improvement Committee to work with clinicians to develop systems, which will help safeguard against adverse drug events.

“Adverse drug events are an international issue and we are working with the health and disability sector to develop world leading systems to improve the quality of care we provide,” SMM Programme Steering Committee chairman Chai Chuah said.

“The SMM Programme is working to improve the processes undertaken in prescribing, dispensing, administering and reviewing medications for patients/consumers and the information available to clinicians to support these processes.

“By working with clinicians we hope to be able to put in place systems, including e-prescribing, which will make the management of medications simpler and that will have warning systems and checks to prevent errors from occurring,” he said.

The Safe Medication Programme was established this year and is a four year programme developing the following initiatives:

E-Prescribing

The SMM Programme is working on systems for e-prescribing so that information about a person’s medications will be passed within and between health providers electronically. The e-prescribing systems to be developed will provide decision support and warning systems, which will help prevent clinicians from prescribing medications that will harm patients/consumers.

Medication Chart

The SMM Programme is working to develop a set of standards for medication charts. Standardising these charts is a key component of the introduction of e-prescribing.

Standardise and Linked systems

The SMM Programme is working to standardise and link all hospital medicine information systems to ensure consistent information is recorded and available about a person’s medications.

Unit Dose/Bedside Verification

The SMM Programme is working to look at possible ways of electronically identifying people in hospitals (such as by bar codes on wrist bands) and their medications. This may include repackaging and bar coding medications as single doses. People in hospital would then be matched electronically to their medications before they are given to them.

Medicine Reconciliation

The SMM Programme is working to develop electronic systems for medicine reconciliation, which will allow clinicians to see an up to date list of a patient's medications, which will assist with the prescribing process.

This linked electronic system will list the name, dosage, frequency and route (how given i.e. by mouth or injection etc) of a person’s current medications and compare it to the new prescription and alert the clinician to any discrepancies.

For further information contact SMM Programme Communications Manager, Steve Addison on 027 6222 468.