IMPROVING MEDICATION SAFETY TOGETHER
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Although less publicized than healthcare-acquired infections, medication error in healthcare is a major issue all over Europe.
To improve medication safety in hospitals, HOPE, the European Hospital and Healthcare Federation, decided to join the recently created European Union Network for Patient Safety (EUNetPaS), a project co-funded by the European Commission. HOPE is now leading the work on medication safety.
The originality of EUNetPaS is to use existing knowledge and practices. For the purpose of the project, around a hundred of good practices in increasing medication safety have been identified in sixteen Member States. A selected number of them will now be implemented in other hospitals of eleven Member States: Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Lithuania, Portugal, and The Netherlands
For the final preparation before this implementation phase to be starting soon, HOPE was then gathering expertise in Brussels in the first week of February 2009. It became clear along the discussions that beyond this implementation exercise across borders, lies the complex issue of transferability in the diversity of the healthcare sector: what can we transfer and how far.
This work that will run until the end of 2009, is an active collaboration of European organization of hospital pharmacists, community pharmacists (PGEU), nurses (EFN), as well as various national stakeholders (Ministries of health, agencies, universities).
Contact:
Pascal Garel
sg@hope.be