ISMP to Develop First Community Pharmacy Medication Error Reporting Program for State of California

PLYMOUTH MEETING, Pa., April 30, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- The Institute for Safe Medication Practices (ISMP), a world leader in improving medication safety, is building a medication error reporting program and portal for community pharmacies licensed by the California Board of Pharmacy. This will be the first state-mandated medication error reporting program in the nation focused specifically on community pharmacy.

The creation of the California Medication Errors Reporting Program is a result of the enaction of Assembly Bill 1286 (Haney, Chapter 470, Statutes of 2023) in 2023 to improve patient safety and address staffing and workplace conditions in community pharmacies. The reporting program requires that California-licensed community pharmacies confidentially report errors that reach patients to an entity approved by the California Board of Pharmacy. In September 2024, the Board selected ISMP as the Board-approved entity to receive and review medication error reports.

ISMP has decades of experience collecting and analyzing medication error reports to identify risks and guide safety improvements across care settings. ISMP runs the only national voluntary, practitioner-based reporting system, the ISMP National Medication Errors Reporting Program, as well as the ISMP National Vaccine Errors Reporting Program and ISMP Consumer Medication Errors Reporting Program. ISMP is a company of ECRI, a healthcare quality and safety nonprofit that operates one of the nation's largest patient safety organizations (PSOs) – the ECRI and ISMP PSO.

Building upon the experience with existing ISMP reporting programs, analysis, and error prevention efforts, ISMP will use submitted medication error reports to identify key trends, patterns, and safety issues. ISMP will also provide the California Board of Pharmacy with an annual report based on aggregate data that includes reduction strategies and other actionable recommendations for safety improvements.

"The California Medication Errors Reporting Program will produce data-driven insights about preventable adverse events that can drive broad systemic change," says Rita K. Jew, president of ISMP. "Reporting errors and near misses is essential to ensure the success of efforts to reduce risk in the community pharmacy setting. We applaud California for being a national leader in taking this forward-thinking step to safeguard patients and hope other states will implement similar programs."

For more on ISMP's medication error reporting programs, visit: Report An Error

About the Institute for Safe Medication Practices
The Institute for Safe Medication Practices (ISMP) is the nation's first 501c (3) nonprofit organization devoted entirely to preventing medication errors. ISMP is known and respected for its medication safety information. For more than 25 years, it also has served as a vital force for progress. ISMP's advocacy work alone has resulted in numerous necessary changes in clinical practice, public policy, and drug labeling and packaging. Among its many initiatives, ISMP runs the only national voluntary practitioner medication error reporting program, publishes newsletters with real-time error information read and trusted throughout the global healthcare community, and offers a wide range of unique educational programs, tools, and guidelines. In 2020, ISMP was acquired by ECRI, a global organization advancing safe, evidence-based healthcare. The ECRI and the ISMP PSO is a federally certified patient safety organization by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. As a watchdog organization, ISMP receives no advertising revenue and depends entirely on charitable donations, educational grants, newsletter subscriptions, and volunteer efforts to pursue its lifesaving work. Visit www.ismp.org and follow @ismp_org to learn more.

SOURCE Institute for Safe Medication Practices