- The worldwide cost associated with medication errors is estimated at 42 billion dollars annually.
- Since 2019, every September 17 marks World Patient Safety Day.
- The goal is to increase public understanding and engagement and encourage countries to promote safety in health care.
Globally, half of preventable harm in healthcare is medication-related, and a quarter of it is serious or life-threatening. On the eve of World Patient Safety Daywhich is commemorated every September 17, the WHO emphasizes the Global burden of medication harm.
Population at risk
Older people, especially those taking multiple medications, are one of the groups most at risk of be harmed by medication. High rates of medication-related harm are also seen in surgical care, critical care, and emergency medicine.
“Medications are effective tools to protect health. However, medicines that are wrongly prescribed, taken incorrectly or of poor quality can cause serious harm. No one should be harmed by medical care,” said Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO Director-General.
Unsafe medication practices and medication errors they are one of the leading causes of preventable injury and harm in health care systems around the world. The worldwide cost associated with medication errors is estimated at 42 billion dollars annually.
The medication errors they are due to systemic problems or human factors such as fatigue, poor environmental conditions, or staff shortages, which affect prescribing, transcription, dispensing, administration, and follow-up practices. These errors can cause serious damage, disability, and even death.
The World Patient Safety Day aims to increase public understanding and engagement and encourage countries to promote safety in health care.
Eliminate failures with drug doses
This 2022 will be especially focused on the safety of medication with the slogan “Medication without harm”. The campaign will also consolidate the current WHO Global Challenge for Patient Safety: Medication Without Harm, with the aim of reducing avoidable harm related to medication.
Today is the #WorldPatientSafetyDay.
Unsafe medication practices and medication errors 💊 are among the leading causes of preventable harm in healthcare worldwide.
Find out
👉https://t.co/DrBsNqmwae pic.twitter.com/VhSGQ11N5A— PAHO/WHO Mexico (@OPSOMSMexico) September 17, 2022
The WHO calls for an urgent improvement of strategies to reduce medication-related harm in key risk areas. In addition, it collaborates with its partners to develop a set of technical resources on medication safety, including a regulatory overview and medication safety solutions, such as medication safety for look-and-sound medications. Similar.
Drugs that look and sound alike may look or sound similar to each other, either because of their generic or brand name. They may have similar packaging, similar-sounding names, or similar spelling.
In addition to human error, Failures in prescription systems are a major contributor to medication-related harm. It has been shown that more than half of the damage caused by medication occurs in the phase of drug prescription and at the time that patients take them, due to inadequate control.
The highest risk category for medication-related harm is antibiotics, but medications such as sedatives, anti-inflammatories, and heart and blood pressure medication also pose significant risks.
WHO calls on stakeholders to continue their efforts to reduce medication-related harm, to develop strategies and structures to improve medication safety at local, national, regional and global levels, and to commit to adopting the WHO Challenge. the “medication without harm”.
Origin of the ephemeris
The World Patient Safety Day was established by the World Health Assembly in 2019 with the aim of increasing public awareness and engagement, enhancing global understanding, and working towards global solidarity and action by countries and partners to promote safety in health care.
Each year a theme is selected in order to shed light on a critical priority area for patient safety. The world patient safety daye of 2022 has been dedicated to the safety of medicines.
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