Shifa Hospital wins ISMP award

Islamabad : Department of Pharmacy Services, Shifa International Hospital (SIH) won the Institute of Safe Medical Practices (ISMP) award in recognition of implementation of medication safety strategies, says a press release.

ISMP is the US-based world’s foremost non-profit organization educating the healthcare community and consumers about safe medication practices. The ISMP cheers award honours individuals, organizations, and companies that have set a standard of excellence for others to follow in the prevention of medication errors and adverse drug events. Winners are recognised for their positive examples and/or teamwork through their implementation of medication safety strategies.

This year, the award has been granted to Shifa International Hospital for setting up ‘Camera Assisted Verification’ to ensure concurrent, in-process verification of oncology admixture for the right medicine, right concentration, dose, and right diluent.

According to the chief of pharmacy, Salwa Ahsan, the tailor-made software for this process have a huge acquisition and maintenance cost which may not always be easy for resource-limited countries to consider. But Shifa pharmacy was able to run this process with local gadgets and software available in minimum operational cost. Dr. Manzoor H Qazi, chief executive officer, Shifa International Hospital congratulated the pharmacy team for achieving this award and reiterated that SIH will continue implementing medication safety practices for its patients.