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This conference focuses on reducing medication errors and resulting harm in hospitals in line with the WHO Medication without Harm Programme goal to reduce the level of severe, avoidable harm related to medications by 50% over the next five years. The conference focuses on prioritising high risk medications and high risk patient groups to enable your interventions to have the highest impact on patient care and reduction in patient harm. The conference aims to bring together clinicians, managers , medication safety officers and leads to understand current national developments, and to debate and discuss key issues and areas they are facing in improving and monitoring medication safety, and reducing medication errors and harm in hospitals.
The conference will also look at reducing medication errors in high risk patient groups such as older people as identified by the recent HSIB investigation: “Academic research suggests that over 200 million medication errors occur within the NHS in England every year2. Errors were more likely to be noted in older people, or in the presence of co-morbidity and polypharmacy…The average age of patients admitted to hospital is increasing and operational and clinical pressures within acute hospital care may create additional factors that lead to drug errors not being identified in older patient groups. The range of comorbidities and medicines taken by older people increases the complexity of medication prescription and the risk of patient harm when medication errors occur.” HSIB July 2019.
“There are an estimated 237 million ‘medication errors’ per year in the NHS in England, with 66 million of these potentially clinically significant. ‘Definitely avoidable’ adverse drug reactions collectively cost £98.5 million annually, contribute to 1700, and are directly responsible for, approximately 700 deaths per year”
“If the WHO medication without harm challenge ambition is a 50% reduction in harm - surely we should consider the areas where the most harm is currently caused.”
Benefits of attending. This conference will enable you to:
• Network with colleagues who are working to reduce medication errors
• Reflect on the perspective of a patient who is taking high risk medicine
• Understand high risk drugs, high risk parts of the medicines use process and patients with the highest vulnerabilities
• Reflect on how you prioritise interventions in areas that will have the most impact
• Identifying and reducing high-risk prescribing errors in hospital: implementing the learning from the HSIB Investigation
• Implement a medication error reduction programme and monitor medication safety metrics
• Explore how can an understanding of human factors help to reduce medication error and improve medication safety
• Effectively manage a medication incident investigation and ensure change occurs
• Understand how to reduce omitted and delayed medicines
• Reflect on case studies of reducing medication error in high risk areas including insulin, anticoagulants, frail older
people and emergency care
• Self assess and reflect on your own practice
• Gain CPD accreditation points contributing to professional development and revalidation evidence
