Medication reconciliation can help providers identify potential safety issues during medication administration. Based on interviews with stakeholders, this study examined medication reconciliation practices across Canadian cancer centers. Although a high proportion of the centers had a process for collecting best possible medication history (BPMH, 81%), implementation of a complete medication reconciliation process was uncommon. Stakeholders identified several barriers to implementation, including lack of resources and a lack of electronic health record interoperability across institutions, systems, and community pharmacies.

Missed diagnosis of infectious diseases can have serious consequences for patient safety. This article describes a delayed diagnosis of disseminated tuberculosis in a patient with lung cancer and discusses the how cognitive biases and systems failures contributed to the diagnostic error.

Previous research has established that patient complaints can shed light on patient safety concerns. This analysis of 266 patient complaints in cancer care found that more than 40% were interpersonal in nature, whereas 11% were related to quality and safety. The authors suggest ongoing, systematic analysis of patient complaints in order to identify suboptimal care.

This systematic review of quality and safety practices for oral chemotherapy found that telephone calls from nurses identified adverse medication events and supported adherence. Technology-enabled approaches such as text messaging, interactive voice response, and video-observed therapy have not been effective to date.

… Nursing Forum … Oncol Nurs Forum … This article shares a set of comprehensive standards to guide safe administration …

Medication safety efforts continue to focus on minimizing drug interactions. Furthermore, an aging population and greater use of chronic medications may increase the risk of such events. This study surveyed more than 400 cancer patients and discovered that more than 25% of them were at risk for a potential drug interaction. Most cases involved non-cancer agents such as warfarin and antihypertensives. In a small number of cases, patients received duplicate prescriptions. While the authors discuss the role of clinical decision support systems in preventing these events, their findings noted only potential drug interactions and not true adverse events. A similar study reported on potential drug interactions in hospitalized cancer patients.