Open | MidCentral extends medication safety campaign for another 12 months

The end of the Open for better care national patient safety campaign’s six-month focus on reducing harm from high-risk medicines is just the beginning for MidCentral District Health Board (DHB) – as it prepares for the start in May of its own year-long medication safety campaign.

With different themes each quarter (beginning with general awareness-raising and later including insulin and opioids), a packed programme is planned, featuring expert speakers, literature searches, and ‘tips and tricks’ to be sent out each week as one-liners.

Competitions will include staff being invited to suggest good ideas around improving medication safety.

‘It might be something as simple as printing on medication bottles or medication trolleys or tactical prescribing – anything at all,’ says Muriel Hancock, the DHB’s director of patient safety and clinical effectiveness.

‘It will be an ongoing competition right through the year. Every quarter we will do a random draw and award a prize. But we will also make a commitment to go back to every individual to talk about whether we can implement their idea or not.’

Ms Hancock describes the campaign as mostly for prescribers, but also anybody involved in medication management – ‘something that isn’t onerous and has a bit of fun attached to it, just like the Health Quality & Safety Commission does with its campaign’.