Drug Safety Committee Reminder
Anyone with drug safety concerns can refer the issues to the Drug Safety Committee, which works to resolve medication safety concerns and potential safety issues. The committee, a subcommittee of the Pharmacy and Therapeutics (P&T) Committee, was formed several years ago to focus solely on medication safety.
Tejal Gandhi, MD, director of Patient Safety, and Bill Churchill, MS, RPH, director of Pharmacy, co-chair the multidisciplinary group of physicians, pharmacists, nurses and risk management and IS staff.
The committee meets twice a month to look at issues with the entire medication administration system and potential safety concerns about topics including drug monographs, new potential policies and drug administration issues, such as who should administer a drug and when. The committee also reviews all order-entry templates to ensure they meet medication safety criteria so that there are no unsafe drug interactions, for example.
“We work through the issues, search literature, conduct expert reviews and go to key stakeholders before putting forth a proposal to solve a potential safety issue,” Churchill said. “We’re working to make systems safer and better.”