Creating a National Action Plan to Prevent Adverse Drug Events

Adverse drug events (ADEs) are one of the most common causes of health care-related harm, affecting over two million hospital stays and accounting for over 3.5 million physician office visits every year.  In response to this critical public health challenge, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services established  the National Action Plan for Adverse Drug Event Prevention  (Action Plan).  The Action Plan seeks to engage stakeholders in a coordinated, aligned, multi-sector effort to reduce ADEs that are the most common, clinically significant, measurable, and preventable. To this end, the ADE Action Plan focuses on three high priority drug classes: opioids, anticoagulants, and diabetes agents.

The Action Plan suggests a four prong approach to reduce ADEs: surveillance, prevention, incentives and oversight, and research.  The Action Plan provides an overview of existing federal systems that support each of these approaches and identifies resources and tools that might be leveraged to advance medication safety.  It concludes with a set of recommendations within each of these approaches for advancing nationwide medication safety efforts.

The presentation will provide an overview of the  development of the Action Plan and a summary of the burden of ADEs on the American health care system across multiple health care settings.  Presenters will share available tools and resources to advance efforts and identify opportunities for advancing current efforts.

The National  Action Plan for ADE Prevention provides the opportunity for significantly advancing medication safety in the United States, resulting in improved health care efficiencies, significant cost savings, and enhanced health care quality.