Baxter launches drug safety packaging

Baxter Healthcare has announced the launch of new drug safety packaging designed for high alert treatments with the aim of reducing medication errors through the use of additional safeguards.

The company presented this initiative at the mid-year clinical meeting of the American Society of Health-System Pharmacists held this week, reporting that the new packaging will help clinicians correctly identify key medications.

Baxter notes that the administration of the wrong drug is the cause of the largest percentage of harmful medical errors, with high alert compounds – including morphine, heparin and insulin – involved in nearly a third of all medication errors causing harm.

David Bonderud, president of the medication delivery business for the US region at Baxter, said: “As a market leader in injectable drugs in hospitals and critical care settings, we are in a position to help address the occurrence of medication errors by providing clinicians with additional safety features to assist them in correctly identifying and properly administering critical medications to patients”

He added that the company anticipates input from healthcare professionals to gain enhanced understanding to improve the design of new packaging and labelling to boost safety.

In September 2007, Baxter International was named the 2007 Medical Products Industry Leader of the Dow Jones Sustainability World Index.