Medication Safety Tips
Featured Resources
About UsReporting Medication ErrorsContact Us
Left Chevron
Back
Left Chevron
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
    ‍

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

‍

More Safety Articles

Don’t Confuse “Rescue” and “Maintenance” Inhalers

Inhalers are devices that contain medicines used to treat asthma and several other diseases that affect the lungs. By inhaling the medicine from the device, asthma sufferers and people with other lung diseases can breathe easier. It is important to learn how to properly use an inhaler and when to use it. This is especially true for people with asthma. Asthma is a breathing condition that affects both children and adults. Many people often need more than one medicine/inhaler to treat their asthma.

Learn More

Insurance Letter: “Your Medicine Is No Longer Covered”

Learn More

Please, Please, Open the Bag!

One of the most frequent errors in the pharmacy is giving a correctly filled prescription medicine to the wrong customer. Recently, we received another report of this type of error. A parent of a 16-year-old teen picked up what was supposed to be an antibiotic to treat his acne, minocycline. The next month, when looking at the prescription label to call in a refill of the medicine, the teen’s mother realized the prescription medicine was for a different person, and the medicine dispensed was not minocycline. Instead, Xarelto (rivaroxaban), a medicine used to prevent blood clots after surgery or in people at risk of having a stroke, was listed on the label. Fortunately, the teen was not injured. However, the risk of bleeding from taking Xarelto in error for a month is certainly significant.

Learn More

Who Keeps the Box?

The pharmacy label on your prescription medicine has important information. It identifies you as the person who will be taking the medicine and tells you how to use your medicine properly and safely. Adding a label to medicines such as tubes of creams, small bottles of liquids or eye drops, and inhalers can be difficult. In these cases, the label is sometimes placed on the outer carton or package that contains the medicine.

Learn More