Which resource includes reports of medication errors and near misses to help prevent them?

• A. The FDA database of medication errors and 'near misses'.
• B. The ISMP MERP
• C. FDA MedWatch program
• D. The CDC Adverse Drug Event Registry

Answer: (A)

The main idea is that prevention comes from a system that collects real-world medication errors and near misses, analyzes them, and then shares concrete, practice-ready guidance. The ISMP Medication Error Reporting Program (MERP) is designed for this purpose: healthcare professionals submit reports about actual errors and near misses, the data are analyzed for patterns and contributing factors, and ISMP uses those findings to publish safety alerts and recommendations aimed at preventing future harm. This makes MERP a practical, prevention-focused resource you can use to strengthen safety practices in patient care.

While other resources like FDA MedWatch collect safety reports to monitor risk and inform regulatory actions, they’re broader surveillance tools rather than a dedicated program whose primary mission is to learn from near misses and immediately translate that into prevention guidance. The CDC Adverse Drug Event Registry isn’t the standard repository for this kind of targeted, prevention-oriented error reporting.