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5. Use of best practices in patient education like; drug labels, auxiliary labels,

pictograms, printed brochures or flyers (bilingual), use of demo devices etc. should

be encouraged and recommended

6. Patients should be educated about high alert medications and how they can play

their role in averting error/harm. The patient’s role may include (but is not limited

to):

6.1. Knowing the indication for use

6.2. Knowing the medicine name and dose they are taking

6.3. Knowing exactly when to stop the therapy and when not to

6.4. Able to identify the colour, shape of tablets/injections they are using (to

avoid wrong drug administration or purchase) in case of any change in

physical appearance

6.5. Knowing the administration technique and timings

6.6. Importance of doing relevant lab tests and cut-off limits

6.7. What to do in case doses are missed?

Recommendations for Health Care Organizations

Use the Canadian High-Alert Medication List to assist in establishing an

organization-specific high-alert medication list, based upon a review and/or risk

assessment of medications in use, as well as the population(s) served.

 Develop and implement safety strategies that reduce the risk of harm for

each of the classes or individual medications on the organization-specific

high-alert medication list, keeping the following principles in mind:

 Safety strategies should be multiple and layered, reflecting effective

interventions according to the hierarchy of effectiveness (see example in

Figure 3).5,7

 Strategies ideally should address the underlying cause of any known

incidents.

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