Standardizing Medication Labels

Medications are an important component of health care, but each year their misuse results in over a million adverse drug events that lead to office and emergency room visits as well as hospitalizations and, in some cases, death. As a patient's most tangible source of information about what drug has been prescribed and how that drug is to be taken, the label on a container of prescription medication is a crucial line of defense against such medication safety problems, yet almost half of all patients misunderstand label instructions about how to take their medicines. Standardizing Medication Labels: Confusing Patients Less is the summary of a workshop, held in Washington, D.C. on October 12, 2007, that was organized to examine what is known about how medication container labeling affects patient safety and to discuss approaches to addressing identified problems. Table of Contents Front Matter 1 Introduction 2 Presentations 3 Federal Agency Reaction to Prescription Use Instruction Standardization 4 Reaction from the Pharmacy Field to Prescription Use Instruction Standardization 5 Other Stakeholder Reaction to Prescription Use Instruction Standardization: Physicians and Patients 6 Other Stakeholder Reaction to Prescription Use Instruction Standardization: Educators of Pharmacists and Physicians 7 What Would It Take to Move Toward Prescription Use Instruction Standardization? 8 Closing Remarks References Appendix A: Workshop Agenda Appendix B: Biosketches of the Workshop Speakers Appendix C: ACP White Paper