‘Every medicine, every time’ – Celebrating Medication Safety Week at Monash Health

This week is Medication Safety Week, an opportunity to promote the safe use, education and awareness of medicines to reduce the risk of medication errors and improve the delivery of care for our patients.

In the clinical environment, medication errors can have severe consequences for both our patients and treating clinicians and can lead to an increase in patient monitoring, patient harm, treatment required and length of stay.

At Monash Health, our motto for medication safety is ‘every medicine, every time’, and there are six rights of medication safety that apply every time a medicine is prescribed, ordered, dispensed or administered. The six rights are as follows:

1. Right patient – 3 identifiers are confirmed
2. Right medication – medication selected matches what is prescribed
3. Right dose and formulation – strength, dosage and expiry date are checked
4. Right time – time of medicine administration
5. Right route – how the medicine is administered
6. Right reason – why the medicine is being administered

To help promote the importance of medication safety and demonstrate your medication safety knowledge, there are several activities happening this week for you to get involved in.

Medication Safety Week Quiz

Test your knowledge about medication safety, including medication storage, administration, dosage and usage and undertake the Medication Safety Week Quiz. If you answer all questions correctly, you will go into the draw to win a prize.

Medication Safety Week Photo Competition

Capture a photo of your team demonstrating how you practice medication safety and enter the Medication Safety Week Photo Competition. When taking photos, please ensure all COVID-19 PPE safety measures and patient privacy requirements are upheld.

To enter the competition, send your photo to medicationsafety@monashhealth.org for your chance to win a prize.

Is your Medication Storage and Security Audit up to date?

This week offers a timely reminder for nurse and midwife managers to arrange their Medication Storage and Security Audits to be completed.

This audit is required every six months and focuses on the legislative requirements related to medication storage and security. If you have any enquires and for further details, please speak to your pharmacist.

For more information about Medication Safety Week and for resources and materials on medication safety, visit the Pharmacy intranet page.

Approved by Dr Anand Ponniraivan.