Weigh In On Joint Commission's Medication Standards For Emergency Departments

Main Category: Pharmacy / Pharmacist
Also Included In: Primary Care / General Practice
Article Date: 13 Mar 2008 - 4:00 PDT

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ASHP is strongly encouraging member input as it helps The Joint Commission (TJC) develop standards that ensure the entire medication-use process is safe for patients in emergency departments (ED).

ASHP is poised to submit comments on TJC's proposed revisions to Medication Management (MM) standards 4.10, 4.15, and 8.10. In its draft comments, ASHP strongly recommends that TJC carefully consider the pros and cons to its proposed revisions, which exempt ED orders from prospective medication order review by pharmacists. ASHP urges TJC to maintain its commitment to pharmacist medication order review as a fundamental principle for a safe and effective medication-use process for patients.

Earlier this year, members of TJC's Hospital Professional and Technical Advisory Committee (PTAC) expressed concerns about TJC's proposed revisions to Standard MM 4.10, which currently requires pharmacist prospective review of medication orders. Committee members asked TJC to reconsider a change that permits retrospective review under certain circumstances because they were concerned about potential risks to patient safety.

ASHP urges members to provide their perspectives on its comments during the TJC field review period, which ends April 1. The standards and survey to provide comments are available on TJC's hfield review web page until April 1. To have your comments included for consideration in ASHP's official response, forward them to quality@ashp.org.

American Society of Health-System Pharmacists