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Healthcare Quality and Safety

USP's Healthcare Quality and Safety (HQS) Group was created to develop patient safety and drug information programs, and products and services for practitioners and patients. It is HQS's mission to contribute to the safer care of patients by providing resources that help healthcare professionals safely deliver and administer medications to patients.

Patient Safety Standards

Four Expert Committees (Safe Medication Use, Nomenclature, Compounding Pharmacy, and Sterile Compounding), and their Advisory Panels support USP's patient safety initiatives. USP products include the USP Pharmacists' Pharmacopeia and the USP Dictionary of United States Adopted Names (USAN) and International Drug Names.

The Model Guidelines Expert Committee produces the USP Model Guidelines for the Medicare Part D benefit through the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.

Collaborations

USP is a founding member and the current Secretariat for the National Coordinating Council for Medication Error Reporting and Prevention (NCC MERP). NCC MERP is an independent body comprising 26 national healthcare organizations, which are collaborating to address the interdisciplinary causes of errors and to promote the safe use of medications. For more information, visit www.nccmerp.org.

Previous Patient Safety Programs

USP's leadership in medication error reporting and prevention has been an important part of its public health activities for several decades, with major contributions based on the work of distinguished volunteers in USP's Council of Experts using data and information from MEDMARX and the MER Program. In a decision to focus full attention and resources on its core standards setting activities, USP transfered its reporting programs, MEDMARX and the Medication Errors Reporting (MER) Program, to Quantros and the Institute for Safe Medication Practices (ISMP), respectively. USP will continue to use data from these and other programs to enhance its standards-setting activities to promote patient safety and safe medication use. In the interest of public health and to assist practitioners and patients, USP has posted five years of MEDMARX data and eight annual reports below in electronic format for free, ensuring full access to this clinically important information. All queries about MEDMARX should be addressed to Quantros at www.quantros.com. For MER information, contact ISMP at www.ismp.org or 1-800-324-5723.

Patient Safety Products

Patient Safety Tools and Resources