Ensuring patient safety through reducing medication errors: World Health Organization

Patient safety refers to the prevention of harm and minimizing the chances of injuries or mistakes in the field of health care delivery. In-fact, the global estimates depict that on an annual basis in excess of 130 million adverse events are reported exclusively in health care settings in developing nations. The careful analysis of the trends has revealed that the issue of medication safety is of utmost importance in three settings, namely high-risk circumstances, consumption of multiple drugs and during the transition of care. The presence of comprehensive policies, better leadership from the managers, skilled team of health workforce, meaningful involvement of patients and strengthened surveillance mechanism to document reports of medication errors, can together reduce the magnitude of the entire problem. In conclusion, the time has come to adopt a multi-sectoral approach involving workforce, patients, policy makers, researchers and health sector to ensure not only patient safety, but even make it as a priority in the current era of health care delivery.