Resource Location: https://health.gov/our-work/national-health-initiatives/health-care-quality/adverse-drug-events/national-ade-action-plan
The National Action Plan for Adverse Drug Event Prevention (ADE Action Plan) was established to address two key objectives: (1) identify common, preventable, and measurable adverse drug events (ADEs) that may result in significant patient harm; and (2) align the efforts of Federal health agencies to reduce patient harms from these specific ADEs nationally.
On the basis of national ADE data from inpatient and outpatient settings, three types of ADEs were considered to be common, clinically significant, preventable, and measurable, and were therefore selected as the high-priority targets of the ADE Action Plan.
The three initial targets of the ADE Action Plan are:
1. Anticoagulants (primary ADE of concern: bleeding)
2. Diabetes agents (primary ADE of concern: hypoglycemia)
3. Opioids (primary ADE of concern: accidental overdoses/over sedation /respiratory depression)
The ADE Action Plan suggests a four-pronged approach to reduce patient harms from these three ADEs: Surveillance, Prevention, Incentives and Oversight, and Research.