ISMP National Summit on Perioperative Medication Safety

The Future of Perioperative Medication Safety: Charting our Path Forward

Much is known about the causes and prevention of perioperative medication errors. However, our collective challenge to turn this knowledge into preventive measures remains unmet, as harmful perioperative medication errors continue to represent a serious concern. Many of the medication error‐prevention strategies associated with perioperative care have been known for more than a decade, yet we are only learning now through the ISMP Medication Safety Self Assessment® for Perioperative Settings to what extent they have been implemented in healthcare organizations. We also have not been highly effective at delivering this knowledge to a broad range of perioperative healthcare professionals, providing them with a detailed roadmap on how to assess their systems for vulnerabilities and implement safe practice strategies. The focus of The Future of Perioperative Medication Safety: Charting a Path Forward is to explore current barriers to the adoption of known medication safety practices and identify future opportunities to limit risk and advance safety in this setting. Although progress has been made through the years, we believe there remains significant opportunities for organizations to adopt safer practices to reduce or eliminate risk and support safe patient outcomes in both inpatient and outpatient settings. During the summit, medication-related safe practice guidelines for the perioperative setting will be formulated through a consensus development process.

This invitational, virtual summit is scheduled for Wednesday November 10 and Thursday November 11, 2021, and will bring together a multidisciplinary group of healthcare experts, frontline practitioners, professional association representatives, and medical product vendors. Together, we will discuss challenges and barriers to medication safety present in all types of perioperative settings and look to gain consensus on best practice adoption and implementation.

The objectives of The Future of Perioperative Medication Safety: Charting a Path Forward are to:

1. Examine and gain consensus on the most common modifiable medication use risks in inpatient and ambulatory perioperative settings.

2. Identify and remove barriers to the adoption of proven technologies to support the safe use of medications and in perioperative care settings examine and remove barriers to their adoption.

3. Develop and communicate best practices associated with the labeling of medications across all phases of perioperative care (including labeling of outsourced compounded injectables).

The summit is funded through the generous support of our sponsors: