Articles
How to Navigate the New ISMP Website
ISMP has a new website (www.ismp.org) that has been integrated with the website of our affiliate organization, ECRI, to help simplify sign-ins and streamline access to our many services and product...
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Kentucky law prevents practitioners from being criminally charged for medical errors
We were pleased to learn that Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear recently signed a bill (House Bill 159) into law that protects healthcare practitioners from being criminally charged for medical errors...
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ISMP Urges Increased Action at the Practice Level to Halt the Growing Danger of Counterfeit Drugs
Problem: Counterfeit drugs, or fake drugs, made to resemble genuine pharmaceutical manufacturers’ medications (Figure 1), have been a longstanding threat to the health and safety of patients. Alarm...
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Implement Strategies to Prevent Persistent Medication Errors and Hazards: 2024
Reflecting on events that occurred in 2023, we have identified the top three medication errors and hazards that were recurring themes in the ISMP Medication Safety Alert!, which our affiliate ...
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Three New Best Practices in the 2024-2025 Targeted Medication Safety Best Practices for Hospitals
ISMP has released its 2024-2025 Targeted Medication Safety Best Practices for Hospitals, whose purpose is to identify, inspire, and mobilize widespread, national adoption of consensus-based Best Pr...
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Why “Benchmarking” Error Rates Is NEVER a Good Measure of Performance or Patient Safety
Problem: Organizations often want to know, in comparison to their peers, how they stand in achieving and maintaining an environment that promotes patient safety. Benchmarking is a process that can ...
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Minimizing Distractions and Interruptions During Medication Safety Tasks
Problem: A distraction occurs when an individual’s attention is drawn away from one task to a different task, or when they are trying to work on multiple tasks at the same time. An interruption occ...
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Pump Up the Volume: How to Prioritize Events and Analyze Error Data
Problem: Error reports can be used to identify local system hazards, provide analysis of uncommon events, share lessons within and across organizations, and improve patient safety culture.1 In our ...
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Latent and Active Failures Perfectly Align to Allow a Preventable Adverse Event to Reach a Patient
Problem: A physician prescribed 2 g of intravenous (IV) magnesium sulfate for a patient in palliative care to treat hypomagnesemia. To administer the dose, a night nurse went to an automated dispen...
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Isoflurane Labeled “For Animal Use Only” in Cartons of Isoflurane Intended for Human Use
ISMP has received reports from several healthcare institutions that recently received cardboard cases labeled “Isoflurane USP 100 mL” by Piramal Critical Care (NDC 66794-017-10) (Figure 1) that act...
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Adopt Strategies to Manage Look-Alike and/or Sound-Alike Medication Name Mix-Ups
ISMP has long advocated for increased awareness of look-alike and/or sound-alike medication name mix-ups and the implementation of safeguards to prevent them. To support this advocacy, ISMP maintai...
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Potassium Chloride for Injection Concentrate in EXCEL Plastic Bags
B. Braun recently announced a new presentation of potassium chloride for injection concentrate (2 mEq/mL) in a 250 mL EXCEL container plastic bag with blue and red labeling, and a blocked medicatio...
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