What's in a label? — How to identify problems with labels to prevent medication errors

• Have you had incidents where "confusing labelling or packaging" was a contributing factor?
• Are you responsible for selecting or purchasing medications for your organization?
• Do you have a process for evaluating the labels of new products selected or purchased for use in your organization?
• Do you produce your own labels for compounded or repackaged items?

Friday, October 18, 2019
1 day workshop

Program Abstract
This workshop will teach participants how to look at medication labels in a different way to identify possible problems and prevent errors.

Participants will learn about the importance of label design and how safety principles can be used to assess both manufacturer and in-house-generated medication labels to identify potentially problematic designs and to propose safety strategies that can be used to reduce the likelihood of medication errors.

This is an interactive, small group workshop. The hands-on portion of the workshop will provide an opportunity for participants to evaluate manufacturer and in-house sample labels^* from their practice settings.

^*Participants are requested to bring 6-10 sample labels in current use in their organization for round table discussion (manufacturer and/or internally generated, such as compounding, IV admixture, etc.).

Learning Objective
On completion of this workshop, participants will understand:

1. Safety principles that support the design of safe medication labels and packages;
2. The importance of considering the end user and how the product will be used; and
3. How to apply learned principles and strategies for safe labelling in their practice setting.

  About the Workshop     

What's in a label? — How to identify problems with labels to prevent medication errors

• Have you had incidents where "confusing labelling or packaging" was a contributing factor?
• Are you responsible for selecting or purchasing medications for your organization?
• Do you have a process for evaluating the labels of new products selected or purchased for use in your organization?
• Do you produce your own labels for compounded or repackaged items?

Friday, October 18, 2019
1 day workshop

Valentina Jelincic, RPh, BScPhm
Project Lead and Pharmacist Consultant
ISMP Canada

Valentina has been a consultant with ISMP Canada for over 15 years. She has worked in the public and private sectors as a consultant, including with professional and non-profit associations.

She has over 25 years of practice in teaching hospitals, ranging from clinical pharmacist to pharmacy administrator, with medication safety consistently in the forefront of practice. Her experience includes pharmaceutical product selection, formulary review and approval; drug utilization management; clinical pharmacy practice; interdisciplinary strategic and project planning; procedure development; implementation of new hospital programs; and budget development, control, and analysis. Her work has also included writing and editing of educational and healthcare materials, such as symposium proceedings, hospital clinical manuals, and medication safety articles. She has published in the research literature and has edited English translations of foreign-language medical articles and dossiers.

Valentina's work with ISMP Canada has involved the development and support of various safety initiatives, including many of the Medication Safety Self-Assessment tools, teaching FMEA and RCA to hospital practitioners, participation in the neuromuscular blocking agent labelling and packaging initiatives, leading the oncology LASA project with TALLman recommendations, and work on a variety of Health Canada projects, including the Look-Alike/Sound-Alike guidance, the guidelines for safe labelling and packaging of medications, a project that relates to the daily activities of almost every healthcare practitioner, and more recently on biosimilar naming.

Ambika Sharma, RPh, PharmD, BScPhm, HBSc
Medication Safety Analyst
ISMP Canada

Ambika is a graduate from the University of Toronto's Leslie Dan Faculty of Pharmacy's Bachelor of Science in Pharmacy (BScPhm) and Post-baccalaureate Doctor of Pharmacy (PharmD) programs.

Ambika joined ISMP Canada during her final PharmD rotation, which fostered a keen interest in medication safety and the important role of pharmacists in promoting safe medication practices. She continues to work with ISMP Canada as a Medication Safety Analyst, and has been involved in a variety of initiatives. Current projects include: labelling and packaging initiatives with key stakeholders; coordination of SafeMedicationUse.ca newsletters for consumers; the white paper project to optimize effective sharing and learning from medication incidents; and educational workshops, such as "Best Possible Medication History Training for Pharmacy Technicians" and "Label and Package Design".

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