ISMP’s Consumer Website

Institute for Safe Medication Practices (ISMP) is pleased and excited to announce the launch of Consumer Med Safety (www.consumermedsafety.org), the first and only website on the internet exclusively designed to bring the message of medication safety to the consumer market.

ISMP steadfastly believes that consumers can and want to play a key role in their safety when receiving and taking medications. This unique, interactive website will offer consumers a reliable source of information, rich with stories and advice that will clearly impact consumer medication safety. 

An informed consumer can have a major impact on reducing medication errors on both themselves and their families. Consumer Med Safety was created to improve:

• Health outcomes related to medication use
• Medication adherence
• Health literacy
• Patient/provider collaboration and communication

Features Include:

• Consumer Medication Error Reporting
• Customized Drug Alerts
• Over 500 viewable webpages
• Three major knowledge sections
• Preventing Medication Errors
• News
• Tools and Resources
• Drug Alerts
• Safety Articles
• Medication Checks
• Drug Information

By visiting Consumer Med Safety, consumers will become better educated about medication safety, understand their role in helping to prevent medication errors, and apply the recommended strategies to reduce the risk of errors. They will be more empowered to question healthcare professionals who are prescribing, dispensing, and administering medications to make sure all potential problems are addressed to their satisfaction. The immediate impact will be a healthcare delivery system in which better informed and educated consumers play a vital role in promoting safe medication practices.

Consumers spend a large portion of time on the Internet obtaining information about their health and safety. According to the 2007 Institute of Medicine report, Preventing Medication Errors (http://www.iom.edu/?id=35961), the proportion of adults who have sought health information online grew from 27% (54 million) in 1998 to 53% (117 million) in 2005. While there is a proliferation of Internet-based health information available online, the report found that the quality of the information is quite variable.

In addition, there are relatively few websites that offer consumers quality information about medication safety, and even fewer or none that:

• Have dedicated the website entirely to consumers
• Are hosted by a charitable organization with a singular mission to understand the causes of medication errors and provide time-critical error-reduction strategies to the healthcare community, policy makers, and the public
• Teach consumers by offering blinded, memorable stories about actual errors that have happened
• Offer proven advice from safety experts regarding the prevention of medication errors
• Offer consumers a means to ask experts questions about medication safety
• Offer consumers a means of reporting medication errors to an impartial agency that will use the information to foster large-scale changes in healthcare.

With the extensive scope of this problem, a consumer website dedicated solely to medication safety, and hosted by the nation’s premier medication safety organization, should be a national priority. It is imperative that we get drug safety information out to consumers using the most effective ways of reaching this audience and with the degree of specificity needed to facilitate consumer implementation of innovative ways to reduce the risk of medication errors. Also of great importance, the website will stimulate consumer reporting of medication errors so that ISMP can continue to learn more about the causes of medication error and share prevention strategies.

Consumer Med Safety is being funded through generous sponsorships from private and corporate donors. To find out how to become a sponsor, click here to contact Renee Brehio or call at 215-947-7797.