Urgent message: Medications can heal, but they can also be deadly. That’s why protocols and controls, supported by rigorous and frequent documentation, are needed to reduce the possibility of medication errors in the urgent care setting.

The most recent 10-year study on medical errors by the Institute of Medicine of the National Academies (sponsored by The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services) found that medication errors are by far the most common medical errors, harming at least 1.5 million people every year. These medication errors lead to what’s known clinically as adverse drug events (ADE), defined as harm experienced by patients as a result of exposure to a medication. So, the charge for the urgent care leader is, have your staff take a hard look at the medication practices in your center, then answer the question: Is your center part of the problem, or the solution?

Read complete article here in the Journal of Urgent Care Medicine