The Health Research and Educational Trust (HRET) and the Institute for Safe Medication Practices (ISMP), in collaboration with the American Hospital Association (AHA), have developed three important tools to assist hospitals in reducing medication errors via the Pathways for Medication Safety initiative:

1. Leading a Strategic Planning Effort
   (PDF, 1.55 MB, 86 pages)
2. Looking Collectively at Risk
   (PDF, 1.89 MB, 98 pages)
3. Assessing Bedside Bar-Coding Readiness
   (PDF, 1.54 MB, 54 pages)

Train-the-Trainer Program

Pathways Links  Pathways Web Site  Project Overview   (PDF, 79 KB, 3 pages)  Executive Summary   (PDF, 1.6 MB, 8 pages)  Pathways Tools  "Scan if You Can,"   HIMSS News, January 2003

To maximize the immense value of these tools, hospitals will greatly benefit from skilled instructors who have been trained to facilitate the application of each Pathways tool in individual hospital practice sites.

The Commonwealth Fund has pledged financial support to develop a curriculum for this purpose. This curriculum will, in turn, be the cornerstone of several national symposia to carry out train-the-trainer programs for state hospital associations, patient safety/quality improvement groups, large and small health systems, or individual hospitals to prepare teams at the grass roots level to effectively apply the Pathways tools.

The training program curriculum will support the development of an initiative to educate teams within hospitals, health systems, members or constituencies.