Quality Standard Details
Medication Safety: Care in All Settings
- Publication Date
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2021-March-01
- Status
- Published
- Topic Area
- Drugs, Drug Administration
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Medication safety is defined as “freedom from preventable harm with medication use”; it can affect health outcomes, length of stay in a health care facility, readmission rates, and overall costs to Canada’s health care system. Globally, unsafe medication practices and medication errors are a leading cause of injury and avoidable harm in health care systems.
This quality standard addresses care for people of all ages who are taking one or more medications. It focuses on care in all settings relevant to medication safety, including primary health care, specialist health care, long-term care, and home and community care.
Although the quality standard addresses care for people of all ages who are taking medications, there may be additional medication safety considerations for certain groups that are not addressed in the standard.
This quality standard is intended to complement other quality standards with medication-related content, such as Transitions Between Hospital and Home, Opioid Prescribing for Acute Pain, Opioid Prescribing for Chronic Pain, and condition-specific quality standards.
Quality Standard in Brief
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Quality Statement 1: Involvement in Decisions About Medication
People (or their substitute decision-makers) are involved in making informed decisions about their medications.
Quality Statement 2: Prescribing Practices
Prescriptions are sent to the dispensing pharmacy via e-prescribing software embedded in the patient’s electronic medical record, which allows for two-way communication between the prescriber and the pharmacist. Effective clinical decision support systems are used to aid prescribing.
Quality Statement 3: Accurate and Up-To-Date Medication List
An accurate and up-to-date list of medications is available to people taking medication (and their families and caregivers, as appropriate) and to relevant health care professionals.
Quality Statement 4: Structured Medication Review
People taking medication have structured medication reviews, especially during health care visits when medications are a major component of their care, or as clinically indicated.
Quality Statement 5: Medication-Related Patient Safety Incidents
Patients, caregivers, health care providers, and organizations recognize, report, and learn from medication-related patient safety incidents. Health care providers and organizations support a patient safety culture that is person-centred, just, and trusting.
Supporting Documents
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Patient guide for this quality standard
Know what to ask for in your care
Placemat for this quality standard
A quick-reference resource for clinicians that summarizes the quality standard and includes links to helpful resources and tools
Quality improvement tools and resources for health care professionals, including an action plan template
Supplementary information to support the data collection and measurement process
Additional Resources
If you would like to receive these resources, please send us a message using our contact form:
- Case for improvement (slide deck)
Share why this standard was created and the data behind it, to get the support you need to put it into practice - Technical specifications
See the technical specifications for the indicators within the quality standard - Summary of the public feedback we received
- Case for improvement (slide deck)
Last Updated: February 24, 2026
