Projects

Hospital-Acquired Hyponatremia, and Use of Hypertonic 3% Saline in Adults

Hyponatremia has been estimated to occur in 15-30% of patients hospitalized acutely or chronically, and is cited as the most common electrolyte disorder encountered in clinical practice.

Hospital to Home - Facilitating Medication Safety at Transitions

Hospital discharge is a critical interface when patients are at high risk of fragmented care, adverse drug events, and medication errors as they transition out of the hospital to their home environment. Ensuring safe medication transitions is complex and requires an interdisciplinary team effort.

Strengthening Medication Safety in Long-Term Care

Working together to reduce harm associated with medication management in Long-Term Care Homes

Anticoagulant Safety Project

Getting Started with Storage Safeguards to Minimize the Risk of Harm with Unfractionated Heparin

Opioid Stewardship

Opioid medications are used to treat pain. Opioids are also known as narcotics. In recent years more and more Canadians are using opioids, and research indicates that we are now the world’s second largest consumer of opioids. Along with this increased use of opioids there has also been a corresponding and alarming increase in the harm from opioids.

Oxytocin Safety

Oxytocin is a high-alert medication. Its use to start or advance labour has been identified as a high-risk area of practice. A patient handout was developed that provides information about the benefits and risks of oxytocin for these indications.

Safe Use of Insulin Interventions

ISMP Canada, with support from the Ontario Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care, undertook a knowledge translation project on insulin use interventions and safeguards based on learnings from the Ontario Critical Incident Learning Program.

Safe Use of Insulin Pen e-Learning Module

The insulin pen e-Learning module is meant to provide a general introduction to the Safe Use of Insulin Pens for healthcare providers. It is not meant to replace hands-on training. It was created by ISMP Canada with support from the Ontario Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care for hospitals in Ontario.

Advancing Medication Safety in Paediatrics

The Institute for Safe Medication Practices Canada (ISMP Canada) and the Canadian Association of Paediatric Health Centres (CAPHC) are working collaboratively, with support from the Canadian Patient Safety Institute, to enhance the safety of paediatric medication use.

Consumer Medication Incident Reporting Initiative

In early 2019, ISMP Canada reached out to the Canadian Patient Safety Institute and Patients for Patient Safety Canada to collaboratively develop and launch an initiative to increase the quantity and quality of medication incident reports from consumers.

Coroners and Medical Examiners - Medication Safety Resources

This web page has been developed to provide Coroners and Medical Examiners with useful information regarding death investigation in drug-related cases, including access to a secure, direct, one-way portal for the purpose of sharing information and lessons learned from investigation of medication incident associated deaths.

Safer Medication Use in Older Persons

This information page is part of an awareness campaign designed to provide care team members in long term care homes, hospitals and the community with information on medications that are poorly tolerated by older persons.

Dangerous Abbreviations Awareness Campaign

ISMP Canada, Accreditation Canada, and the Canadian Patient Safety Institute will be undertaking joint initiatives to eliminate the use of dangerous abbreviations, symbols and dose designations in health care to enhance the safety of Canadian patients.

Drug-Drug Interactions Pharmaceutical Opinion

This project aims to motivate pharmacists to integrate cognitive services into daily workflow

Mandatory Reporting of Serious Adverse Drug Reactions and Medical Device Incidents

The Protecting Canadians from Unsafe Drugs Act, also known as Vanessa’s Law, is intended to increase drug and medical device safety in Canada by strengthening Health Canada’s ability to collect information and to take quick and appropriate action when a serious health risk is identified. It will be mandatory for hospitals to report serious adverse drug reactions (serious ADRs) and medical device incidents (MDIs) to Health Canada, effective December 16, 2019.

Medication Reconciliation

Medication reconciliation is a formal process in which healthcare providers work together with patients, families and care providers to ensure accurate and comprehensive medication information is communicated consistently across transitions of care.

MedRec Ontario

Tools and Resources

Medication Safety Support Service

Assist Ontario hospitals, long term care facilities and community pharmacies to implement strategies and safeguards for the prevention of patient injury from medication use.

Med Safety Exchange

Join your colleagues across Canada for complimentary 50-minute webinars to share, learn and discuss incident reports, trends and emerging issues in medication safety!

Ongoing Collaborations

Ontario Antimicrobial Stewardship Project

Antimicrobial resistance is a known major public health issue, and antimicrobial stewardship, the appropriate use of antimicrobial agents, is critical to stemming the continued emergence of antimicrobial-resistant organisms.

Pharmaceutical Bar Coding Project

In an effort to increase medication safety, members of the healthcare industry are collaborating to implement standardized bar codes on pharmaceutical products which have been approved for use in Canada.

TALLman Lettering

Medication incidents are a leading cause of preventable adverse events. Drug name confusion, particularly because of look-alike/sound-alike (LASA) name attributes, can be a contributing factor to medication related adverse events.

5 Questions to Ask about your Medications

5 questions to help patients and caregivers start a conversation about medications to improve communications with their health care provider.