Medication Safety

The Australian Commission on Safety and Quality in Health Care has identified medication safety as one of its priorities. Reducing error and harm from medicines through safe and quality use of medicines is an important element of our work and is helping us to achieve our objective of leading and coordinating national safety and quality improvements in health care.

The Medication Safety Program aims to improve the safety of medication usage in Australia. Effective and safe use of medication is an area of great potential improvement in the safety and quality of health care.

The environment in which medicines are regulated, prescribed, supplied, administered and monitored in Australia is complex. It involves many stakeholders, government and non-government, at national, State and Territory levels, and includes health professionals, researchers, large and small corporations, consumers and carers.

The Commission focuses its efforts in the following five areas:

Standardisations and systems improvement (See Medication charts and other standardisations, tools for systems improvement);

Reducing practice gaps;

Continuity of medicines management (see Medication reconciliation);

Using Technology (see Safety in E-health);

Advocating medication safety and quality by working with the National Medicines Policy Executive and other organisations working in national medication safety and quality.