Safety of high risk medicines

Due to the nature of high risk medicines, the SA Health's High Risk Medicines safety initiative raises awareness on how high risk medicine errors occur and how they can be prevented.

Insulin

About 31% of Australia’s one million diabetics use insulin to control their disease and prevent long term complications. Highly effective when used appropriately, insulin is also recognised as a high risk medicine being one of the top five medicines reported in global incident monitoring systems.

Errors with insulin therapy cause serious harm and can be fatal.

Ways to prevent insulin errors

Complete the eLearning modules for high risk medicines, including insulin and refer to the Insulin - Safety Tips fact sheet (PDF 171KB) which addresses: 

  • avoid abbreviations
  • unclear doses and instructions
  • look-alike and sound-alike names and packaging
  • use insulin syringes
  • high doses
  • prescribe by trade names and device
  • insulin preparation
  • engage patients and carers

Further information

For further information e-mail HealthMedicationSafety@sa.gov.au