Application of a Systems Approach to Medication Safety

Patient safety is a subject that spans the spectrum of medical specialties. In the surgical fields, much focus has been placed on ensuring that the correct procedure is performed on the correct side of the correct patient. While surgeons must be vigilant in their efforts to avoid procedurerelated errors, they must be equally attentive to errors associated with medications. Surgeons commonly prescribe analgesics and antibiotics, drugs recognized as high risk for errors and adverse drug events (ADEs) (1). Medication orders must therefore be accurate and appropriate to reduce the risk of ADEs (2-4).