Medications can be lifesaving treatments that change the world. Unfortunately, if not used properly medications can also lead to adverse events. In fact adverse drug events (ADEs) account for over 1 million emergency department visits a year and 1/3 of all hospital adverse events.

For these reasons, the Great Plains Quality Care Coalition launched a Learning and Action series around Medication Safety. The first in the series took place on Tuesday, January 19, 2021. The first event, Medication Safety – Getting to the Root of the Issue, focused on the causes of adverse events. Drawing from the National Action Plan for Adverse Drug Event Prevention and the Age Friendly Health System 4Ms model, Jayme Steig, PharmD, RPh, reviewed the many factors that can lead to adverse events and introduced practices to avoid ADEs. Stories about medication safety issues were shared and attendees offered input on interventions in place or opportunities for improvement. Steig is a Quality Improvement Advisor with Great Plains Quality Innovation Network.

If you missed this Webinar, the recording and presentation are linked below, along with handouts from the learning event. Be sure to register and attend the Medication Safety Action Group on February 16, 2021 for additional discussion, coaching and identification of quality improvement efforts to improve medication safety. Details and the link to register are below.

“I’m excited to start our Learning and Action Series on the topic of Medication Safety. Our first learning event discussed the overall importance of medication safety, determinants of adverse drug events and medication safety related interventions and best practices. We learned from our attendees factors currently impacting medication safety in their organizations and interventions being planned or already in place,” stated Jayme Steig, PharmD, RPh. Steig added, “Attendees left the event ‘in action’ to complete a cause and effect exercise to identify root causes impacting medication safety. We look forward to working with our partners to identify tools and best practices to develop improvement plans to address these issues. This will begin at our Action Group scheduled on February 16 where we’ll have an interactive discussion and sharing between attendees to further their development of successful interventions to improve medication safety.”

Next Steps: Medication Safety Action Group & Learning and Action Network Event