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Reporting a Medication Error

What Do We Do With Your Report?

At ISMP, we review incident reports submitted by consumers and healthcare professionals and look for ways to prevent harmful errors. For example, we may approach a manufacturer to suggest that the label of a product be changed, we may suggest safer ways for healthcare professionals to handle medications, or we may remind consumers of things they can do to avoid making mistakes with medications.

ISMP will:

  • Review your report
  • Look for system problems that could cause errors to happen
  • Prepare recommendations that are designed to prevent mistakes with medication
  • Send recommendations about medication safety to healthcare professionals and consumers
  • Notify the manufacturer if it is a product issue
  • Advocate throughout the healthcare system to promote changes to improve medication safety
  • Provide consumer-focused information and tips about medication safety on the ConsumerMedSafety.org website
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ISMP will not:

  • Investigate a complaint on your behalf with an organization or healthcare professional that is responsible for an error
  • Investigate the actions of individual practitioners
  • Report (for disciplinary purposes) the incident to professional authorities responsible for regulating the practice of healthcare professionals
  • Release or publish any information that could identify the reporter of an incident, a patient, a healthcare professional, or an organization involved in an incident

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More Safety Articles

This Oral Syringe Is Not Like the Others

The oral syringes that come with risperidone oral solutions are uniquely labeled and may cause confusion. Risperidone is a medicine used to treat certain mood disorders. Unlike other oral syringes, risperidone oral syringes have a barrel (the part that holds the medicine) that does not have any lines or numbers (markings). Instead, the markings appear on the plunger ( Figure 1). To measure a dose, the plunger must be pulled back until the dose marking aligns with the flange (winged end) of the barrel. Even though these syringes are different than other oral syringes, the instructions do not provide detailed, clearly illustrated information on how to read the markings when measuring a dose. We recently learned about a man who may have taken too much risperidone due to confusion with the dose markings.

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Steps Parents Can Take to Help Their Child Safely Get Their Medicines at Camp

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Important Recall: Over-The-Counter (OTC) Artificial Tears Linked to Serious Bacterial Eye Infection

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Accidental Poisonings of Babies - Birth to 6 Months: How They Happen and What You Can Do to Prevent Them

Medicines are a leading cause of accidental poisonings in young children. When we think about this, older babies and toddlers who can scoot, crawl, walk, and/or climb come to mind. Older babies and toddlers are curious and explore their world by “mouthing” the items they find. If they see something that looks interesting, they often reach for it or climb to it. Therefore, it is important to keep medicines and other potentially toxic products up and away and out of the sight and reach of children.

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