Medication safety

The Department of Health oversees a range of strategies to reduce the risk of patient harm from medication-related incidents. These include providing support and expert medication safety advice to public and private health providers and developing and issuing patient safety notifications, fact sheets, practice guidelines, forms and charts.

Guidelines

• Aminoglycoside Dosing in Adults guideline (PDF 931 kB)
• Anticoagulant for hospitalised adult patients (PDF 2356 kB)
  • Appendix 1: Direct oral anticoagulant (DOAC) drug interactions (PDF 97 kB)
  • Appendix 2: Warfarin drug interactions (PDF 153 kB)
  • Appendix 3: Private pathology warfarin care programs (PDF 101 kB)
  • Quick reference guide - Anticoagulants for hospitalised adult patients (PDF 232 kB)
• Guideline for the Management of Adult Patients with Heparin-Induced Thrombocytopenia (HIT) (PDF 422 kB)
• Iron polymaltose slow intravenous infusion guideline (PDF 255 kB)
• Paracetamol - Guideline for safe paracetamol use (PDF 464 kB)
• Prescribing Electrolyte Disturbances in Adults (PDF 258 kB)
• Prescribing Intravenous Fluids for Adults (PDF 364 kB)
• Warfarin (PDF 393 kB)—Guidelines for management of Warfarin in the community
  • Fact sheet: 2024 Update to the Guideline for Warfarin Management in the Community (PDF 134 kB)
• Venous thromboembolism (VTE) Prevention
  • Guideline for the Prevention of Venous Thromboembolism (VTE) in Adult Hospitalised Patients (PDF 779 kB)
  • Guideline overview (PDF 52 kB) (poster style)
  • Adult Venous Thromboembolism (VTE) Risk Assessment Tool (PDF 2485 kB)
    (help viewing and downloading document)

Resources

• Consumer brochure: Your medicines in hospital, let’s get it right together (PDF 1069 kB)

Fact Sheets

• Discontinuation of Protaphane® InnoLet® and other insulin products (PDF 148 kB) (19 December 2024)
• Constrained supply of morphine oral liquid (PDF 776 kB) (17 July 2024)
• Reports of belladonna toxicity from colic preparation (PDF 157 kB) (3 June 2024)
• 2024 Update to the Guideline for Warfarin Management in the Community (PDF 134 kB) (23 April 2024)
• Benzathine benzylpenicillin is not ‘BenPen’ (PDF 231 kB) (22 January 2024)

Contact

Medication Safety
Email: MedicationSafety@health.qld.gov.au