New Information Standard aims to reduce medication errors in England

A new Information Standard has been published in England to help reduce medication errors and improve patient safety.

The Standard aims to standardise medication message content to enable the transfer of prescription information across health and care settings in England. It’s hoped that this will enable medicines information to be more efficiently shared between NHS and social care organisations such as from hospitals to residential care homes, mental health trusts and pharmacies. In particular, the Standard aims to be beneficial in reducing medication errors when patients transfer between locations.

Through the Standard, clinicians will be provided with a more detailed and consistent source of medicines related information across all settings. It will enable healthcare professionals to obtain medicines information in a quicker, more efficient manner, saving time and improving patient care.

Dr Simon Eccles, deputy CEO of NHSX and National chief clinical information officer said: “This new standard will make medicine prescribing safer for patients and easier for clinicians, reducing errors in prescription and improving the monitoring of medications that can cause harm.

“This is the result of a true collaborative effort between NHSX, NHS Digital, industry and the frontline that will make a real difference to the care and support local clinicians can provide to their patients.”

NHS Digital Clinical Lead for the Interoperable Medicines Programme, Shahzad Ali, said: “Having access to good quality information is critical for clinicians when making decisions about the patients in their care. As a practising clinician, I have seen first-hand the burden clinicians can face when medicines information is incomplete or inconsistent. 

“This new Standard will save healthcare professionals valuable time accessing key medicines information, provide clinicians with access to a richer source of information, consistent across all care settings, and, in turn, help reduce potential medicines related errors and improve patient safety.”