Report a Medication Error or Hazard - Institute for Safe Medication Practices

I'm not sure if this non-profit "independent watchdog organization" has been posted before.  Looks very interesting to our cause.

Institute for Safe Medication Practices

http://www.ismp.org

"About Us" 

http://www.ismp.org/about/default.aspx

Consumer Error/Hazard Reporting

https://www.ismp.org/errorReporting/reportErrortoISMP.aspx

ISMP List of High-Alert Medications in Community/Ambulatory Healthcare  (No mention of benzos!  )

High-alert medications are drugs that bear a heightened risk of causing significant patient harm when they are used in error. Although mistakes may or may not be more common with these drugs, the consequences of an error are clearly more devastating to patients.

https://www.ismp.org/communityRx/tools/ambulatoryhighalert.asp

Interesting tidbit ...

Ongoing Collaborations and Relationships

Food and Drug Administration

ISMP is a Food and Drug Administration (FDA) MedWatch Partner. ISMP reviews all FDA MedWatch reports which contain information about medication errors. As a MedWatch partner, ISMP also promotes FDA’s initiatives to reduce adverse drug reactions.

http://www.ismp.org/about/ismp_collab.aspx

It certainly appears to be an organization worth reaching out to.  Anyone heard of them?

Their consumer website.

Consumer MedSafety

http://www.consumermedsafety.org/

WHAT TYPES OF ERRORS AND OTHER EVENTS SHOULD BE REPORTED?

Medication errors, near misses, or hazardous situations that should be reported include, as well as bad reactions, but are not limited to:

    Receiving the wrong drug, strength, or dose of medication that was ordered for you

    Being prescribed a drug to which you were allergic

    Having an unexpected reaction to a drug because you were taking another drug or food that shouldn't be eaten while taking the drug

  Taking a drug incorrectly because you did not understand how or when to take it

  Developing an already known but unexpected side effect because the provider did not give clear or full instructions on how to properly take the drug. For example, if you got an upset stomach because you were not told to drink a full glass of water when taking your medicine or getting sunburned because you were not counseled that the drug requires you to stay out of sunlight.

    A problem with equipment used to give the medication such as with IV (intravenous) pumps, PCA (patient controlled analgesic) pumps, and insulin pens, etc.

I'm bumping this.  It's important.  I should've chosen the following attention grabbing subject line. 

(Mods, maybe you can change it for me, thanks).

WHAT TYPES OF ERRORS AND OTHER EVENTS SHOULD BE REPORTED?

Medication errors, near misses, or hazardous situations that should be reported include, as well as bad reactions, but are not limited to:

=  Receiving the wrong drug, strength, or dose of medication that was ordered for you

=  Being prescribed a drug to which you were allergic

=  Having an unexpected reaction to a drug because you were taking another drug or food that shouldn't be eaten while taking the drug

=  Taking a drug incorrectly because you did not understand how or when to take it

=  Developing an already known but unexpected side effect because the provider did not give clear or full instructions on how to properly take the drug. For example, if you got an upset stomach because you were not told to drink a full glass of water when taking your medicine or getting sunburned because you were not counseled that the drug requires you to stay out of sunlight.

=  A problem with equipment used to give the medication such as with IV (intravenous) pumps, PCA (patient controlled analgesic) pumps, and insulin pens, etc.