title: Medication safety in home infusion care.
abstract: Enhancing medication safety continues to be a critical focus area in healthcare. Barriers to improving safety include a culture of blaming individuals, underreporting of errors, and neglecting to analyze and improve systems. This article describes why medication safety should be linked with a non-punitive reporting system. Drug safety issues specific to home infusion care are identified, with practical recommendations for enhancing safety and reducing medication errors. Included in this discussion is the sentinel event alert for infusion equipment free flow and the JCAHO Patient Safety Goals for 2003.
mesh_terms: D000970:Antineoplastic Agents / Q000008:administration & dosage / Q000009:adverse effects; D005260:Female; D018718:Home Infusion Therapy / Q000451:nursing*; D006801:Humans; D007262:Infusions, Intravenous; D007591:Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations; D008508:Medication Errors / Q000451:nursing* / Q000517:prevention & control*; D017410:Practice Guidelines as Topic; D014481:United States
chemical_list: D000970:Antineoplastic Agents