Technical Series on Safer Primary Care: Medication errors

Overview

Medications are offered by health services throughout the world. However, with substantial and increasing medication use comes a growing risk of harm. This is compounded by the need to prescribe for an ageing population with increasingly complex medical needs and the introduction of many new medications. These issues are particularly relevant in primary care. In many cases, prescribing is initiated in primary care and those initiated in the hospital may also be continued in primary care.

A substantial amount of literature about medication errors is based in the hospital setting, but there are differences in the type of clinical problems encountered, classes of medications used and the organization of services in primary care. This means that the risks posed in primary care and the solutions required may differ from those in hospital settings.

This monograph aims to raise awareness among the World Health Organization (WHO) Member States about ways to reduce medication errors in primary care. After outlining the approach taken to compile information, the monograph describes the importance of investigating medication errors and their potential causes, including strategies to reduce them.