Landspitali - University Hospital
General information
Medication Without Harm is an international quality initiative launched in Iceland in 2020.
Objective of the Initiative
The goal is to reduce severe preventable medication-related harm by 50% within five years. The focus is on quality improvements, including:
Enhancing medication safety during transitions of care within the healthcare system.
Reducing inappropriate polypharmacy.
Promoting safer use of high-risk medications.
The reason for the effort
Medication errors are common in healthcare systems worldwide. Although methods exist to minimize errors, their implementation varies.
Over 50% of medication errors are estimated to occur after hospital discharge.
Older patients, especially those on multiple medications, are at higher risk of serious consequences.
Approach
To achieve the initiative's goals in Iceland, the following areas are prioritized:
Strengthening clinical pharmacy services across the healthcare system.
Improving quality in medication-related processes.
Optimizing IT systems for medication information.
Enhancing governance of medication safety.
Increasing training and education for healthcare professionals on medication safety.
Improving collaboration and communication with patients and the public regarding medication safety.
Measure of success
In 2020, a task force was appointed by the Directorate of Health’s steering committee to develop aquality indicators or assessment tools (. pdf) to assess the impactof the quality effort.
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