Global Patient Safety Network webinar series 2021- Medication safety: implementing the Challenge

The WHO Patient Safety Flagship: A Decade of Patient Safety 2020-2030 is pleased to invite you to a webinar devoted to the third WHO Global Patient Safety Challenge: Medication Without Harm that is organized in the Global Patient Safety Network 2021 webinar series.

Every person around the world will, at some point in their life, take medicines to prevent or treat illness. However, medicines do sometimes cause serious harm, if taken incorrectly, monitored insufficiently or resulted from an error, accident or communication problem.

Unsafe medication practices and medication errors are a leading cause of injury and avoidable harm in health care systems across the world. Globally, the cost associated with medication errors has been estimated at US$ 42 billion annually. Medication errors occur when weak medication systems and/or human factors such as fatigue, poor environmental conditions or staff shortages affect prescribing, transcribing, dispensing, administration and monitoring practices, which can then result in severe harm, disability and sometimes even death.

In 2017, WHO launched the third WHO Global Patient Safety Challenge: Medication Without Harm with the theme of medication safety. The goal of the Challenge is to gain worldwide commitment and action to reduce severe, avoidable medication-related harm by 50%, specifically by addressing harm resulting from errors or unsafe practices due to weaknesses in health systems.

Objectives of this webinar

• To learn about the third WHO Global Patient Safety Challenge: Medication Without Harm and some of the technical tools and resources to support its implementation.
• To understand the scope of medication-related harm and selected strategies to reduce harm.
• To familiarize with approaches to implement the Challenge at national, subnational, facility or community level.

Global Patient Safety Network webinar series 

In an effort to fortify mutual learning and experience sharing, Patient Safety Flagship will be organizing quarterly webinars on patient safety priority areas. The webinar series brings perspectives from global, regional, national and institutional levels as well as that of patients and families. 

Objectives 

The objectives of the Global Patient Safety Network webinar series include: 

1. Update and brief members on recent developments related to the selected topic 
2. Orient members on WHO work, programmes and initiatives on the selected topic 
3. Reflect on perspectives and experiences from regions, countries and partners 
4. Provide a platform for discussion 
5. Address questions and concerns of network members