Read this book in order to learn: Why medicines often fail to produce the desired result and how such failures can be avoided How to think about drug product safety and effectiveness How the main participants in a medications use system can improve outcomes and how professional and personal values, attitudes, and ethical reasoning fit into

In 1996 the Institute of Medicine launched the Quality Chasm Series, a series of reports focused on assessing and improving the nation's quality of health care. Preventing Medication Errors is the newest volume in the series. Responding to the key messages in earlier volumes of the seriesâ€"To Err Is Human (2000), Crossing the Quality Chasm (2001), and Patient Safety (2004)â€"this book sets forth an agenda for improving the safety of medication use. It begins by providing an overview of the system for drug development, regulation, distribution, and use. Preventing Medication Errors also examines the peer-reviewed literature on the incidence and the cost of medication errors and the effectiveness of error prevention strategies. Presenting data that will foster the reduction of medication errors, the book provides action agendas detailing the measures needed to improve the safety of medication use in both the short- and long-term. Patients, primary health care providers, health care organizations, purchasers of group health care, legislators, and those affiliated with providing medications and medication- related products and services will benefit from this guide to reducing medication errors.

Open up Improving the Quality of the Medication Use Process: Error Prevention and Reducing Adverse Drug Events, and you?ll gain instant access to crucial data pertaining to the prevention, detection, and research of error in health care, specifically in the pharmacy profession. Under the direction of this collection of current and timely chapters, you?ll find that you can become more adept at defining error, determining the factors that contribute to error, and deciding how medication errors can be reduced and even completely prevented. Each year, an estimated 120,000 preventable deaths and nearly 1,000,000 injuries occur during the course of medical treatment--a staggering and alarming figure. Improving the Quality of the Medication Use Process takes a hard look at such misguided health care and proposes quick and effective methods for intervention on the part of the individual professional and the health care community at large. These and other topics will help you in your efforts to identify error and design methods of error prevention: the causes of medication errors strategies relative to system modifications--practice standards, packaging, labeling, and product identity accountability issues from various multidisciplinary health care sectors the medical, ethical, and public policy considerations associated with medication errors and patient injuries various system and practice initiatives currently being implemented to facilitate the medication use process Improving the Quality of the Medication Use Process is a book for physicians, pharmacists, nurses, health care system managers, the pharmaceutical industry, and the average citizen who has been in the health care system and wants to be informed before the next trip to the office or drugstore. Read it, and you?ll find that you more clearly understand the problems leading up to adverse drug events. You?ll also feel more dedicated to taking the proactive measures that will minimize or even eliminate medication errors.

Your home probably has some sort of pain relief medication, something to combat bouts of allergies, and maybe a few vitamins or supplements from the local health store. And then there are the prescribed medications, the ones you're taking daily and those that you take "as needed". But do you ever wonder how your medications work, what is the best time to take each, or how that pain relief tablet, those allergy meds, and prescription drugs interact when taken at the same time? Or how your newly prescribed antibiotic reacts with that glass of wine you had with dinner? Preventing Medication Errors at Home tells you what you need to know about those medications in your house and how each can improve your health and possibly cause harm. With drug therapy being a major part of conventional medical treatment, and so many medications available over-the-counter, tens of thousands of people in the United States alone die every year from side effects related to their diabetes, pain, depression and blood-thinning medications, and roughly one million people are admitted to the hospital for drug-related issues. At least half of these disasters are preventable with proper awareness of how drugs work, how to take them properly, how to identify serious side effects, and how to avoid dangerous drug combinations. Dr. Simon Haroutounian presents an engaging, easy-to-read book to help you take responsibility for your medications. Learning how to ask the right questions before you start a new medication is likely to improve your health, and possibly save your life.

v. 1. Research findings -- v. 2. Concepts and methodology -- v. 3. Implementation issues -- v. 4. Programs, tools and products.

Help stop the widespread problem of medication errors among the elderly The problem of medication errors among the elderly is widespread. Improving Medication Management in Home Care: Issues and Solutions tackles this tough issue by closely examining the challenges faced in preventing medication errors in home and community care program settings and putting forth effective solutions to better manage medication use. Respected experts discuss the unique role of the pharmacist in improving patient safety, presenting a comprehensive collection of evidence-based studies featuring national and international viewpoints, cutting-edge interventions, and cost-effective procedures that address medication problems in older adults. Polypharmacy is the term used for patients receiving too many medications for a specific treatment. The implications for drug-drug interactions can be dangerous for the unaware patient. Improving Medication Management in Home Care: Issues and Solutions focuses on several different effective management programs and examines each in detail, completely explaining the positive—and negative—results. This hands-on practical information is useful for all professionals and field providers working with older adults and their medication concerns. The book also provides valuable lessons through the experiences of national home health leaders in various settings—hospital-based, rural, large or small, etc., as well as community-based programs for dually eligable older adults. The book is extensively referenced and includes an abundance of clear, helpful tables, figures, and Web resources. Improving Medication Management in Home Care: Issues and Solutions explores: developing computerized risk assessment screenings implementing pharmacist-centered interventions improving transitional care from hospital to home the Prescription Intervention and Lifelong Learning (PILL) program Medication Therapy Management Services a quality-improvement project to reduce falls and improve medication management outcome-based quality improvement for patient safety intern programs that can provide cost-effective consultant services Improving Medication Management in Home Care: Issues and Solutions is essential reading for home health care administrators, clinicians, managers, pharmacists, physicians, educators, students, those professionals involved in the field of aging, and health practitioners world-wide.

In this expanded 600+ page edition, Dr. Cohen brings together some 30 experts from pharmacy, medicine, nursing, and risk management to provide the most current thinking about the causes of medication errors and strategies to prevent them.