Self Assessments

Medication Safety Self Assessment® for Community/Ambulatory Pharmacy

pharmacist and patient

The ISMP Medication Safety Self Assessment® for Community/Ambulatory Pharmacy is designed to:  

  • Heighten awareness of distinguishing systems and practices related to a safe community pharmacy medication system
  • Assist your interdisciplinary team with proactively identifying opportunities for reducing patient harm when prescribing, storing, preparing, dispensing, and administering medications
  • Create a baseline of your efforts to evaluate risk and evaluate efforts over time

The self assessment is divided into ISMP's Key Elements of the Medication Use System™.  Each key element is defined by one or more core characteristics of a safe medication use system.  Each core characteristic contains individual self-assessment items to help you evaluate the medication safety strategies in your organization.

This assessment tool has been made possible through funding from Cardinal Health Foundation.  ISMP would like to thank the foundation for its continued support of efforts to improve medication safety in community and ambulatory sites worldwide.


ISMP is not a standard setting organization. As such, the self-assessment items in this document are not purported to represent a minimum standard of practice and should not be considered as such. In fact, some of the self-assessment items represent innovative practices and system enhancements that are not widely implemented in healthcare facilities today. However, their value in reducing errors is grounded in scientific research and/or expert analysis of medication errors and their causes.

The ISMP Medication Safety Self Assessment® for Community/Ambulatory Pharmacy and its components are copyrighted by ISMP and may not be used in whole or in part for any other purpose or by any other entity except for self assessment of medication systems by community pharmacies  as part of their ongoing quality improvement activities.

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