Horsham’s Institute for Safe Medication Practices (ISMP) has developed a specific, consensus-bases set of guidelines to increase the safety rate of U.S. pharmacies. Investment insights publisher Morningstar reported the new best-practice recommendations.

The increased oversight is being directed primarily at neighborhood pharmacies; however, its scope also includes:

• Mail-order prescription fillers
• Specialty pharmacies
• Medication administrators in long-term facilities
• Home infusion

“Many types of errors recur in community pharmacies, and more can be done to implement technology and procedures to prevent them,” said ISMP’s Michael J. Gaunt, Senior Manager, Error Reporting Programs.

The best practices seek to bolster prescription usage by:

• Reducing instances in which prescriptions, information, and vaccines are accidentally given to patients not recommended for them
• Expanding and maximizing the use of barcode scanning during medication and vaccine dispensing
• Avoiding errors involving inadvertent daily dosing of methotrexate — an immune-system suppressant — to patients not diagnosed with cancer, the medical condition it was designed for
• Standardizing the use of metric units of measure when prescribing, dispensing, and portioning oral liquid medications
• Sharing medication safety information among sources

ISMP will reexamine these best practices in 2025, aligning with its diligent effort to update them every two years.

More on ISMP and its pharmacy best practice promulgation is at Morningstar.

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CBS News looked at the dangerous issue of pharmacy errors in this 2015 report.