The Opportunity

Each year in the U.S., adverse drug events (ADEs) cause approximately 1.3 million emergency department visits and 350,000 hospitalizations.¹ While the occurrence of an ADE does not necessarily indicate an error or poor quality of care, it is estimated that about half of ADEs are preventable. ²

Engaging stakeholders across disciplines—including physicians, pharmacists, nurses, community health workers, and especially patients and caregivers—is essential to promote medication safety across the continuum of care. A bottom-up approach may be effective to improve individuals’ capacity to obtain, process, and understand basic health information and services, including improved knowledge about medications, how and when to take them, the importance of adherence, and better understanding of treatment aims.

Objectives

The NQF Action Team is committed to engaging patients as active partners to advance medication safety across the continuum of care. The Action Team will seek to promote patient safety by creating a forum for healthcare organizations, community partners, patients, and federal agencies to come together to identify implementation strategies to improve medication safety.

Action Team Process

NQF will convene a multi-stakeholder Action Team for NQF member organizations to engage, share, and learn from one another on a topic of national importance. Through a series of web meetings, the Action Team will develop and share priorities, goals, and promising practices to inspire action in others. The Action Team will explore common challenges, identify innovative solutions, and disseminate best practices to advance medication safety. The Action Team will begin its work in April 2021 and will conclude in fall 2021. A summary of the Action Team discussions and findings will be shared with the public.

NQF Action Teams are limited to NQF member organizations in good standing. Composition of NQF Action Teams emphasizes a balance of public and private stakeholder representation and diverse perspectives, as well as content expertise and/or leadership in patient-centered medication safety.

Additional Information

For more information on this project, or if your organization is interested in sponsoring this initiative, please contact Poonam Bal at qualityinnovation@qualityforum.org.

¹Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Medication safety program website. https://www.cdc.gov/medicationsafety/basics.html. Last accessed November 2019.

²Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ). Medication errors and adverse drug events website. https://psnet.ahrq.gov/primer/medication-errors-and-adverse-drug-events. Last accessed November 2019.