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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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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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Polypharmacy Can Be a Problem for You!

As people age, they often have more health problems. Many of these problems can be treated with medicines. Diseases such as diabetes, high blood pressure, heart failure, and the inability to sleep may require long-term medicines to manage these conditions. When numerous different medicines (e.g., 5 or more) are taken at the same time, it is called polypharmacy.

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Study Shows an Increase in Reports of Young Children Eating Edible Cannabis by Mistake

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There is a Poison Emergency - What Should I Do?

In a poison emergency, the first thing to do is not panic. Help is just a phone call away. The national Poison Hotline at 1-800-222-1222 is your best resource to find out what to do in a poison emergency. The Poison Hotline is staffed by nurses and pharmacists experienced in toxicology who are referred to as CSPIs (certified specialists in poison information).

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