Hiqa finds medication safety risks in hospitals

Inspections of a number of hospitals have found under-reporting of medication ‘near misses’ and incidents.

Some hospitals did not have up-to-date approved lists of medications stocked while patients screened at one hospital found almost 80% had their medication corrected after the process.

The Health Information and Quality Authority (Hiqa) published the first inspection reports on medication safety in public acute hospitals. It examined seven hospitals and found “a wide variation in the medication safety arrangements in place”.