Aware of the fact that healthcare has potential risks and that no system can guarantee the absence of adverse events, as it is an activity in which inherent factors combine the system with human activities, in order to improve the use of medicines, Madrid Regional Health Service has conducted since 2005 various actions on DRUG SAFETY. Thanks to the implementation of the "Reporting Medication Errors" program in Madrid, we know about medication errors that occur at hospitals and community medical offices. The Royal Decree 577/2013 on Pharmacosurveillance of drugs for human use regulates medication error and unintentional failure in the process of prescribing, dispensing or administration of a drug. Citizen benefits with the use of this Portal: Increasingly, evidence shows that health outcomes and patient decision making are strongly associated with health literature. Health literature is defined by the Institute of Medicine as "the degree to which individuals have the capacity to obtain, process and understand basic health information and services needed to make appropriate health decisions." A 2012 sytematic review published in Annals of Internal Medicine showed the relationship between low health literature and poor health outcomes and use of health services (more death, more emergency room visits, more waste, greater inability to take medication appropriately…). During 2013 a total of 2,929 reports of medication errors from primary care data, ("administration of medication by the patient" in 20.86%, 609 medication errors) were received. Of these 609 errors in 9.03% of cases the patient had a temporary injury that required medical intervention and 1.31% or the patient required prolonged hospitalization. Depending on the type of error in the step of administering medications by the patient are the following highlights: dosing errors (172 errors), frequency of erroneous administration (91 errors), drug duplication or unnecessary use of drugs (86 errors), patient noncompliance (77 errors), inappropriate drug selection (56 errors), incorrect route of administration (23 errors), wrong administration technique (23 errors). In addition, certain individual patient factors such as visual difficulties, language difficulties or ignorance of the mode of administration of a drug may require access to additional information for using this new technology. For this reason, it is crucial to foster drug information aimed at the general population in order to increase the knowledge on dose calculations, route of administration or dosage in order to avoid medication errors by its frequency and potential severity.
The website of Madrid Healthcare Service provides consultation services for different drug information, and is regularly updated by a team of pharmacists to provide citizens with information on medicines. From any computer and through www.madrid.org / health, medication management is available from the following main menu sections: Overview, What can be done, I am interested, @ recipe and FAQ. In addition there are shortcuts to relevant information such as: New Leaf Custom medication, drug search, @recipe and see your questions about medications. This interactive site offers citizens the opportunity to: - Search the main information on any marketed drug. This will include photos of the cartons, the actions of the drug, the usual dosage recommendations for use and the most common adverse effects. - Search the main information products drugstore. - Prepare a sheet of personalized medicine in which any citizen can develop a personalized medicine plan with all the medications you take regularly and where the photo carton is incorporated, the dosage of each and its basic information. - Perform on-line consultations on issues related to any aspect of the use of drugs. Inquiries and suggestions received are treated individually and offers the possibility that any citizen make an inquiry by accessing a simple form and being answered by the professionals concerned within a period of 5 days. - Search the chemists of Madrid Region and pharmacies participating in other institutional programs such as the Institutional Program Elderly people Polymedicated. - Access to critical information about Electronic Prescription with an outstanding menu button for information. This page also includes documents of interest, developments related to legislative changes affecting pharmaceutical services, drug supply problems, videos, etc. A section called "wants to know" with the following contents: - Madrid's home kits for emergency medical treatment or minor symptoms not requiring medical intervention and conscious of the need to ensure responsible use since its use is not always correct, from this page can be found easily on the sections of the document's home kit (published in 2011 by Madrid Health Service) forms: What is a home medicine cabinet, what should contain a first aid kit, what should NOT contain a kit, Where to place the kit, Drugs & tips, Commodity Review and cures kit. - Information on the labeling and package leaflet of medicinal products, indicating the patient the information necessary to uniquely identify the project as well as for proper administration and use are provided. - Addition and since under current legislation there are a number of symbols, abbreviations and legends to be included in the packaging material (packaging) is also desirable that citizens are familiar with them and know their meaning to have information on the type of medication you are taking and also use it correctly and in proper storage conditions (eg in a refrigerator and protected from light). All this will help prevent medication errors. Furthemore, - The use of drugs should always be supported by a health professional to be essential to a rational use. - Do not request more medication than needed medical (informing those who for various reasons to avoid). - Disposal of medicines no longer needed or expired should be done in the "SIGRE Points" located in the network of pharmacies. - As you acquire medicines at the pharmacy are those with appropriate health guarantees. Other forms of acquisition of unregulated drugs such as selling through Internet etc During the year 2013 1.293 sheets medication have been prepared , 7.600 drug searches. Since the beginning of online inquiry service have been resolved over 160 queries on medicines. Of these, 40% relate to aspects of SAFETY (interactions, side effects, dosage, drug sales online, miss doses, contraindications, taking medication in pregnancy, indications, allergies ...). Given the high number of inquiries and services used, we believe that the use of this Website as a reference on the use of drugs will result, among other things, a greater knowledge of the dosage and the correct identification of medicinal products (thanks to searcher), in improved adherence (through the use of personalized medication sheet), greater information on legislative developments in pharmaceutical services (through sections like FAQs), to a greater knowledge of the specific characteristics of conservation of medicinal (paragraph symbol on the packaging), and the resolution of specific questions on specific aspects. In short, the development of this Portal translates into direct benefits to the patient as this is a citizen-oriented in order to avoid potentially severe medication errors service.