HHS Drafts National Action Plan to Reduce Adverse Drug Events

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has released a draft of an action plan to reduce medication errors and adverse drug events, such as overdoses. Developed by the Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion, in conjunction with the Federal Interagency Steering Committee and Workgroups for Adverse Drug Events, the National Action Plan for Adverse Drug Event Prevention is designed to identify common, clinically significant, preventable, and measurable adverse drug events and align the efforts of federal health agencies to reduce patient harms from these specific adverse drug events nationally. Initially, the plan will target opioids, anticoagulants, and diabetes agents, which were selected due to their prevalence in national adverse drug event data from inpatient and outpatient settings.