The role of the Medication Safety Officer Pharmacist

The pharmacy is also a multi-faceted entity, with each member of the team carrying out essential duties to ensure a healthy body of clientele. With the healthcare industry growing quickly, the pharmacy itself is evolving and expanding. The role of the pharmacist isn’t just to deliver medicine, it’s to educate, to heal, and to protect the patients. In order to best protect patients and promote medication safety, many pharmacists establish a plan to eliminate errors, which is typically constructed and enacted by the medication safety officer.

What is a Medication Safety Officer?

The medication safety officer (MSO) plays a unique role in the pharmacy industry. They serve as the authoritative resource for all medication safety issues, and they work with their team to establish and communicate a safety plan for the pharmacy, which includes strategies for error prevention. They also analyze any errors that have occurred in the past and work to correct them.

The MSO’s duties reach far beyond the interior space of the pharmacy, however. MSOs ensure the establishment is in compliance with all state and federal legislation regarding medication regulations. They actively participate in local and national organizations, and they remain receptive to current medicine trends and studies.

Sometimes the MSO is a manager or lead pharmacist, but many pharmacies and clinics have been hiring separate MSOs who concentrate only on improving patient safety.

History of the MSO

In 1954, Henry K. Beecher began an analysis of the causes of death during anesthesia administration, which brought the emergence of pharmacy-related research on medication errors. Barker and McConnell continued to research “medical misadventures,” and in 1962, they concluded that the rate of errors was roughly 16 per 100 doses.

1975 marked the establishment of the Institute for Safe Medication Practices (ISMP), which set out to standardize the methods of patient safety and educate clinics about the importance of reducing malpractice. In the years since the establishment of the ISMP, much research has been conducted regarding the rate of errors and the economic impact. In 1999, To Err is Human was published, which paved the way for congressional action and recommended nationwide policies to protect the well-being of patients. It influenced the establishment of the Medication Error Prevention Act of 2000 (HR 3672).

Clinics and pharmacies have always put health and well-being at the forefront of their mission, but today, innumerable measures are taken to preserve this goal. They are taking extra steps to hire appropriate safety staff, adhere to current research and advancements in the field, and work together on quality improvement and risk-management.

What’s in Store

The pharmacy industry has come a long way. Today, patients are seeing cheaper alternatives, preventative pills, and specialty medicine for unique needs. With the growing amount of pharmaceuticals available to prevent and cure, more and more pharmacies are taking extra precaution to ensure both the patient and the staff understand the risks. Medication safety is becoming an industry in itself.

Medication safety officers are leaders. They implement pharmacy-wide initiatives and enact careful strategies based on national and historical data. They act as the resident safety expert, and they keep their focus on one common goal: health and well-being. If the medication safety officer position intrigues you, take steps to  immerse yourself in the MSO culture by joining applicable organizations, learning the trade, and keeping your eyes out for any MSO job openings in the future.

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