Healthcare providers have a new tool to help them prevent dangerous, and often deadly medication errors.

The National Alert Network for Serious Medication Errors will be triggered when a seriously harmful or potentially seriously harmful error has occurred. The alert will include a description of the error, as well as recommendations to prevent the same error in the future. The network was launched in December by the American Society of Health-System Pharmacists (ASHP) and the Institute for Safe Medication Practices (ISMP).

According to a press release, ASHP will disseminate the email alerts to its extensive network of nearly 35,000 health-system pharmacists, as well as other engaged health care practitioners, including physicians and nurses. When an alert is sent out, recipients can use the recommendations provided to take immediate action to make sure the error is not repeated at their facility. With broad reach this system can help prevent a similar error from occurring again anywhere in the country.

Medication errors kill one person per day in the U.S., and injure about 1.3 million every year, according to the U.S. Food & Drug Administration. According to a press release announcing the its launch, the idea of the National Alert Network for Serious Medication Errors stemmed from ASHP’s 2008 I.V. Safety Summit, which focused on ways to end medication errors, such as the one that seriously harmed actor Dennis Quaid’s twins. In November 2007, the then 2-week-old infants, being treated for a staph infection, were given 10,000 units of heparin instead of the 10-unit dose for babies.