A continuous quality improvement project to reduce medication error in the emergency department

BACKGROUND:Medication errors are a common source of adverse healthcare incidents particularly in the emergency department(ED) that has a number of factors that make it prone to medication errors.This project aims to reduce medication errors and improve the health and economic outcomes of clinical care in Hong Kong ED.METHODS:In 2009,a task group was formed to identify problems that potentially endanger medication safety and developed strategies to eliminate these problems.RESULTS:Responsible officers were assigned to look after seven error-prone areas.Strategies were proposed,discussed,endorsed and promulgated to eliminate the problems identified.A reduction of medication incidents(Ml) from 16 to 6 was achieved before and after the improvement work.CONCLUSION:This project successfully established a concrete organizational structure to safeguard error-prone areas of medication safety in a sustainable manner.