The Board of Pharmacy sponsored a Medication Error Task Force from 1999 to 2001, to review issues related to the reduction of medication errors. The Medication Error Task Force drafted a final report, which is linked below. Some of the information contained in the report is now outdated. One important change included amending the State’s Medical Review Committee statute to include a “committee or individual designated by the holder of a pharmacy permit… that performs the functions listed in subsection (c), as part of the pharmacy’s ongoing quality assurance program[.]” MD. CODE ANN., HEALTH OCC. §1-401 (Supp. 2002). Subsection (c) states the following.

  (c)      For purposes of this section, a medical review committee:

            (1)      Evaluates and seeks to improve the quality of health care provided by providers of health care;

            (2)      Evaluates the need for and the level of performance of health care provided by providers of health care;

            (3)      Evaluates the qualifications, competence, and performance of providers of health care; or

(4) Evaluates and acts on matters that relate to the discipline of any provider of health care.

If a committee qualifies as a medical review committee it is provided certain protections from discoverability in civil proceedings, which are established in the Health Occupations §1-401, Annotated Code of Maryland.

As of July 2003, the Board of Pharmacy was promulgating regulations relating to patient safety improvement, based on this statutory change.

Medication Error Task Force Final Report

(Report prepared November 2001)