ISMP Offers Free Drug Safety Tools for Pharmacists
The Institute for Safe Medication Practices (ISMP) is offering three free tools for pharmacists to use in monitoring and promoting drug safety. The three tools include consumer leaflets for high alert medications, High-Alert Medication Modeling and Error-Reduction Scorecards (HAMMERS), and a system to assess barcode verification system readiness in community pharmacies.
High-Alert Medications Consumer Leaflets – Between 2008 and 2012, the Institute for Safe Medication Practices (ISMP) was awarded a grant from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality to conduct a study in community pharmacies regarding the impact of counseling consumers who pick up prescriptions for certain high-alert medications. One of the resources created during this study was a series of consumer leaflets that offer important safety tips for taking each medication safely. The leaflets are freely available for download and can be reproduced for free distribution to consumers.
High-Alert Medication Modeling and Error-Reduction Scorecards (HAMMERS™) – is a free tool designed to help community pharmacies: 1) Identify their unique set of system and behavioral risks associated with dispensing certain high-alert medications; and 2) Estimate how often an error or adverse drug event reaches a patient and how the frequency will change if certain interventions are implemented. The tool provides five Scorecards, each to assess a different type of prescribing or pharmacy error. The Scorecards identify risk factors within the dispensing process and provide estimates of the impact of each risk factor on the overall likelihood that an error will reach the patient.
Assessing Barcode Verification System Readiness in Community Pharmacies – is a free tool to help community pharmacies prepare for future implementation of a barcode product verification system. The tool helps pharmacy leaders and staff to evaluate their current workflow, standard operating procedures, and technology to identify what needs to be accomplished before implementing a barcode product verification system. This assessment tool was developed by the Institute for Safe Medication Practices and funded by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality.
For more information, see the download page for these tools at the ISMP website: ISMP AHRQ HAMMERS info
or see the general tools download page at the ISMP website: ISMP tools Paage