The National Coordinating Council for Medication Error Reporting and Prevention has created an Adverse Drug Event algorithm.
The tool identifies decision points for determining whether an ADE is preventable and helps distinguish terms such as adverse drug reactions, adverse drug events and medication errors. The Council proposes new terminology to clarify the terms and the relationships among them and encourages consistent adoption across the medication safety community.
The algorithm, titled, “Contemporary View of Medication-related Harm. A New Paradigm,” was generally designed to apply to any medication-related event and to help practitioners and healthcare facilities decide if harm could have been prevented.
This tool may aid in developing policies and procedures to mitigate harm. The aim of this algorithm and its associated case scenarios is to assist practitioners and researchers in developing methods to identify ADEs and clarify definitions to improve the ability of hospitals to minimize exposure to medication-related harm.
This tool should be useful for researchers and those who work on medication safety.
