JCAHO issues medication warning

The Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations warns that hospitals need to do a better of job of tracking the medications patients are on during transfers and at the time of discharge. JCAHO says more than 2,000 incidents of errors involving patients getting double doses of medications, receiving inappropriate dosages or suffering preventable drug interactions were reported last year. The Commission says more emphasis should be placed on patient medication histories in charts and that medication reconciliation should be a routine part of patient hand-offs. The alert comes only days after the FDA released more plans for new labeling requirements for prescription drugs designed to cut down on preventable medical errors.

- see this article from the Seattle Post-Intelligencer
- see this report from JCAHO