The following are excerpts from the newsletter

February 9, 2000

• Survey shows how hospitals use the ISMP Medication Safety Alert! to improve medication safety
• ISMP challenges Congress: "Do you want a report card or do you want to learn how to prevent errors?"
• Safety Briefs
  • Caffeine citrate injection now available from Roxane Laboratories. Package labeling may, however, lead to some confusion.
    
  • Drug names can easily be misheard when drug information is requested by telephone.
  • The Clinton-Gore FY2001 budget calls for $16 million in new spending for the FDA to address the problem of medical errors, and for the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality to use $20 million in existing funds for research.
  • The American Hospital Association (AHA) presented its Award of Honor for 2000 to the Institute for Safe Medication Practices (ISMP)
  • Please complete the pediatrics safe practices survey attached to this issue. We'll report findings in a future issue.

February 23, 2000

• Full and timely disclosure of errors to patients: honesty is the best policy
• Make it easier for nurses to accurately identify patients before administering medications
• Legislative Update
• Safety Briefs
  • Concomitant administration may not mean compatible in the same IV line or solution.
  • Update of Lexi-Comp Drug Information Handbook 7th Edition monograph for altepase
  • Amrinone (INOCOR) has officially been renamed inamrinone to help prevent confusion with amiodarone (CORDARONE).
  • Several chemotherapeutic drugs available under the Novaplus brand have identical blue and white color schemes and are available in the same size cartons and vials. Hospitals should be alert to similarities in packaging between these products.