National Quality Forum endorses set of measure for managing medications
The National Quality Forum (NQF) has endorsed a set of 18 measures to better manage over-the-counter and prescription medications and improve the safety of using such medications. The standards focus on helping patients improve their adherence to prescription regimens. Specifically, patients with certain conditions, such as diabetes, asthma, coronary artery disease, kidney disease, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, and schizophrenia, are more likely to be involved in a preventable adverse drug event due to incorrectly taking medication.
Up to 40 percent of patients do not take their medications as prescribed, and an estimated 1.5 million preventable adverse drug events occur each year. The National Quality Forum hopes these new standards will reduce these numbers by identifying gaps and areas to improve.
To read more from the NQF, click here.
Do you think the NQF’s latest set of measures will help those in the industry understand why certain patients are more at risk for an adverse event when taking over the counter prescriptions?
About the Author: Heather Comak is a Managing Editor at HCPro, Inc., where she is the editor of the monthly publication Briefings on Patient Safety, as well as patient safety-related books, webcasts, and audio conferences. She is also is the Assistant Director of the Association for Healthcare Accreditation Professionals (www.accreditationprofessional.com) and manages Patient Safety Monitor (www.patientsafetymonitor.com), of which this blog is a part.
Contact Heather by e-mailing hcomak@hcpro.com
S H Boegli, MBA, RHIT | Sep 23, 2009 | Reply
It’s too bad the list doesn’t include any measures related to one of the most important aspects of medication safety – health literacy. Let’s evaluate how well practitioners (or even institutional providers) are assessing patients’ comprehension of the instructions they are given for using the medication. Re: Teach Back Method, Newest Vital Sign, etc. FYI – October is Health Literacy month.