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This fact sheet provides a list of high-alert medications commonly used in ambulatory care and recommends strategies to reduce risk of errors.

This Web site provides information and tools that support an educational campaign to encourage high-quality communication about medication use. The annual observance is in October and the last observance focused on the theme of "Medication Adherence – On track with your meds and your health".

A handy list for medical personnel to ensure and implement safe prescribing practices by avoiding use of these dangerous shortcuts.

Hospitalized patients are at risk for medication errors. This set of tips seeks to help hospitalized patients contribute to the safe use of medications in their care. Recommendations include that patients know the reason they are taking each medication, speak up if any medications look different than previously, and talk with pharmacists when picking up discharge medications.

Newborns assigned temporary names are at increased risk for patient misidentification and wrong-patient errors. This newsletter article reports on the role of electronic health records in newborn misidentification and the unintended consequences associated with a Joint Commission set of recommendations to reduce risk. 

Standardized practices have not been uniformly adopted to support safe IV medication therapy. This risk assessment tool will help organizations proactively identify process weaknesses that could contribute to patient harm. Users of the guide can also contribute to a national effort to collect data on current IV push practices. The data collection process is now closed.

This fact sheet lists medications with a high risk of causing significant harm to patients when incorrectly administered. The 2018 publication reflects insights gathered through a survey of current medication use in acute care facilities. The update includes changes such as expanded examples of antithrombotic agents listed and removal of IV radiocontrast media due to lack of errors reported with its use.

Efforts to limit the availability of opioids has led to a shortage of needed medications. This fact sheet provides strategies for organizations who seek to improve management of injectable opioids while taking into account both safety and supply availability.

Drug shortages can contribute to treatment delays and complications that lead to patient harm. This survey sought insights from hospital directors of pharmacy regarding their experiences with drug shortages over the past 6 months. 

Mistakes associated with look-alike medication names are a safety concern in health care. Tall Man lettering is one recommended strategy to reduce confusion associated with similarities in drug names. This list includes medications recognized by clinicians and professional organizations as those suited for the application of Tall Man lettering to make their use safer.

Root cause analysis offers a structured way to detect and address system weaknesses. This workbook illustrates how root cause analysis can be applied to community pharmacy services to identify problems and design an action plan to implement improvement strategies.

Standardization has been embraced as a strategy to improve health literacy and to reduce patient misunderstanding of medication instructions. This tool provides standard language that clarifies directions for patients regarding when they should take their medications.

Studies have shown that pharmacist involvement can prevent medication errors. To help patients take their medications safely, this consumer update discusses pharmacists as participants in a government drug information center and reveals the top five questions submitted along with their corresponding answers.

This set of leaflets provides patients with information about taking high-alert medications safely.

The AHRQ Surveys on Patient Safety Culture™ (SOPS®) Community Pharmacy Survey and accompanying toolkit were developed to collect opinions of community pharmacy staff on the safety culture at their pharmacies.

This tool evaluates the safety of cancer treatment delivery in hospitals and ambulatory care settings.

This tool provides hospitals with a team-based process to evaluate medication practices in their facilities. The data submission process is now closed, but the survey is still available for in-house use.

This briefing sheet reviews the opportunities, solutions, and drivers for medication safety improvements.

This piece describes how reduced resources could affect patient safety and quality work in hospitals.