Medication Safety
Unsafe medication practices and medication errors are a leading cause of avoidable harm in health care across the world. Medication errors occur when weak medication systems, and human factors such as fatigue, poor environmental conditions or staff shortages, affect prescribing, transcribing, dispensing, administration and monitoring practices. These errors can result in severe patient harm, disability and even death.
Acknowledging this substantial burden and recognizing the complexity of medication-related harm prevention and reduction, the theme of World Patient Safety Day 2022 is “Medication Safety”. The theme builds on the ongoing efforts of the WHO Global Patient Safety Challenge: Medication Without Harm, which calls on all stakeholders to prioritize medication safety and address areas where most harm occurs: high-risk situations, transitions of care, and polypharmacy
Objectives
- Raise global awareness of the high burden of medication-related harm due to medication errors and unsafe practices, and advocate urgent action to improve medication safety.
- Engage key stakeholders and partners in the efforts to prevent medication errors and reduce medication-related harm.
- Empower patients and families to be actively involved in the safe use of medication.
- Scale-up implementation of the WHO Global Patient Safety Challenge: Medication Without Harm.
Call to action: Know. Check. Ask.
Know your medication.
Check you have the right:
- patient
- medicine
- route
- dose
- time
Ask your patient if they understand.