Subject:
The United States Pharmacopeia (USP) will highlight findings from its annual report on medication errors in U.S. hospitals and health care facilities - focusing on those that parallel the National Patient Safety Goals of the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations (JCAHO).

Areas involved in medication errors, which also are part of JCAHO's goals, to be discussed include:

• Patient identification;
• Communication;
• High-alert medications; and
• The use of infusion pumps.

USP's report: Summary of Information Submitted to MEDMARX in the Year 2002: The Quest for Quality, is an analysis of more than 192,000 medication errors that were voluntarily reported by 482 hospitals and health systems nationwide.

Presenters:

• Diane D. Cousins, R.Ph., vice president of USP's Center for the Advancement of Patient Safety
• Paul M. Schyve, M.D., senior vice president, Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations (via telephone)

When:
Monday, Dec. 8, 2003
1 p.m. CST (2 p.m. EST)

Where:
American Society of Health-System Pharmacists' (ASHP) Mid-Year Meeting
Press Room #242
Morial Convention Center
New Orleans, Louisiana

To Register:
Please an e-mail to: mediarelations@usp.org to participate. Those not attending the ASHP Mid-Year Meeting may participate via telephone by calling 1-800-659-1025 (password:USP). The Power Point presentation will be available at www.usp.org/newscenter.

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Contact: Sherrie Borden
slb@usp.org
US Pharmacopeia
8-Dec-2003