The Institute for Safe Medication Practices has updated its Guidelines for Safe Electronic Communication of Medication Information to address developments in health information technology systems. The guidelines help ensure medication information is presented in a safe and standardized manner across clinical systems in both inpatient and outpatient settings.
They include recommendations on how to present drug names, essential elements of medication orders like dose and frequency, and patient-specific safety information. It also includes suggestions on ways to build drug lookup tools that reduce the risk of error.
On a related note, NCPA has produced a Community-Based Pharmacy Patient Clinical Record Rubric to help pharmacy owners evaluate their clinical systems and identify the best platforms.
