Newswise — Actor Dennis Quaid, whose infant twins suffered a life-threatening medication error in 2007, announced his support for ASHP’s new National Alert Network for Serious Medication Errors and the Pharmacy Technician Initiative in his remarks this week at the Society’s Midyear Clinical Meeting in Las Vegas.

“The reason I am here is to fully support your programs such as the ASHP Pharmacy Technician Initiative and continuing education programs for pharmacists and technicians that can prevent these catastrophic errors from happening,” said Quaid.

The National Alert Network will be triggered when a seriously harmful or potentially seriously harmful error has occurred. The alert will include a description of the error, as well as recommendations to prevent the same error in the future. The alert network was created as a result of ASHP’s I.V. Safety Summit held in 2008.

The Pharmacy Technician Initiative is a partnership between ASHP and individual state affiliates to advocate for state laws that require, as a prerequisite for state board registration, completion of an ASHP-accredited pharmacy technician training program and certification by the Pharmacy Technician Certification Board.

Quaid noted that the injury to his children helped raise public awareness of the potential for serious errors and led to improvements in hospital medication administration systems and package labeling to prevent similar “look alike” errors.

“But these changes would not be possible without you good people, who lead hospital pharmacies and medication safety programs, find ways to reduce harm, and act on them,” said Quaid. “Because of your work, countless lives have been saved. Because of your leadership and implementation of safe practices, we are in a new age of health care.”

The full text of Quaid’s remarks are available at http://www.ashp.org/DocLibrary/MCM09/MCM2009-Dennis-Quaid.aspx.

About ASHPFor more than 60 years, ASHP has helped pharmacists who practice in hospitals and health systems improve medication use and enhance patient safety. The Society's 35,000 members include pharmacists and pharmacy technicians who practice in inpatient, outpatient, home-care, and long-term-care settings, as well as pharmacy students. For more information about the wide array of ASHP activities and the many ways in which pharmacists help people make the best use of medicines, visit ASHP's Web site, www.ashp.org, or its consumer Web site, www.SafeMedication.com.