ABSTRACT
A variety of strategies and techniques have been suggested to improve medication safety and reduce adverse drug events (ADEs) and medication errors, as described in Section III of this book. Increasingly, quality improvement science and reliability science methods are being used to improve patient safety, reduce unwarranted variations in care and outcomes, and produce sustainable changes in systems of care delivery (Bigham et al. 2009; Britto et al. 2014; Crandall et al. 2011; Iyer et al. 2011; Kugler et al. 2009; Luria et al. 2006; Muething et al. 2012; Ryckman et al. 2009a, b; Tofani et al. 2012; Vermaire et al. 2011; Wheeler et al. 2011; White et al. 2011, 2012, 2014). This chapter introduces the concepts of improvement science and reliability
Key Points .............................................................................................................. 123 Introduction ............................................................................................................ 123 Improvement Science .............................................................................................124 Reliability Science ................................................................................................. 126 Examples of Using Quality Improvement Methods to Reduce Adverse Drug Events and Medication Errors ................................................................................ 128 Conclusion ............................................................................................................. 134 Acknowledgments .................................................................................................. 135
science and considers how these can be applied to the prevention of medication errors and ADEs, together with specic examples.
