ABSTRACT
Objectives: Medication errors have a large impact on patient safety and on healthcare cost. Errors occur due to a combination of human and system-related failure. The pharmacist prevents all drug related problems. The objective of this study was to explore pharmacist intervention and prevented medication errors in Pediatrics, Obstetrics and Gynecology at a Tertiary Hospital in East Province, Saudi Arabia. Methods: This article describes 12 months retrospective cohort study of pharmacist intervention and prevented medication errors in year of 2015. This was a retrospective study conducted at 500-bed Pediatrics, Obstetrics and Gynecology in a Tertiary Hospital in East Province, Saudi Arabia. This system was a part of medication safety program. A tertiary hospital had medication safety officer with medication safety committee. All errors or unexpected events related with the medication system or a step in the medication process shall be reported using the medication error from/sheet. The form consisted of patient information, the sources of medication errors and qualification of committing errors. The type of medication errors, description of errors, causes of errors, approval to prevent the errors and the consequence of medication errors by using National Coordinating Council for Medication Error Reporting and Prevention (NCCMERP) system. Results: The total number of prevented medication errors were 1654 within 827 patients’ prescriptions. The medication errors had been made by physicians followed by nurses. The sources of errors were general practitioner 631 (38.15 %) followed by consultant 554 (33.5%). The most common error was made in Pediatrics (1-month to 6 years) followed by young adults (18-40 years). An occurred error, most of the time was afternoon 872 (52.72%) errors followed by morning duty 685 (41.4%) errors. The majority kind of mistakes were prescriber-related 1216 (73.52%) followed by patient-related errors 426 (25.75%). The outcome of medication error was 1651 (99.82%) occurred which did not reach the patient. The most common medications involved in errors were Paracetamol syrup, iron tablet, folic acid tablet and calcium tablet. There were three errors for high-risk medication prohibited for instant: insulin, enoxaparin and heparin. Conclusion: This article presented the pharmacist’s role in preventing medication errors, especially with pediatrics populations. Pharmacists have a crucial system-level role in planning and important medication safety programs and enhancement initiatives within health care organizations. The expanded role of pharmacists in preventing medication errors associated with patient safety programs and avoid the needless cost
ABSTRACT
Objective: Medication errors have noteworthy implications in the field of patient safety. Error detection through a dynamic supervision and an efficient error reporting system unveils medication errors and boosts safe practices. The overall goal of this study is to explore the pharmacist’s adherence to medication errors reporting system in adults and pediatrics at the public hospital in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Methods: This article describes 9 months retrospective cohort study in year of 2015. A retrospective study was conducted on all inpatients at a 300-bed hospital where all medication procedures in each ward were monitored by a clinical pharmacist. The study was conducted at the Public Hospital in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. The hospital had medication safety officer with medication safety committee. The program led by trained pharmacist and delivered basic medication safety education programs to all health professional. The medication error report consisted of patient demographic information, qualification of committing mistakes, time of errors occurs, type of medication errors, reasons for medication errors, medications stages involved and errors outcome. Results: The total number of reports were 805. The most common adherence documentation of error involving medications were cost related information (100%), error related information with an average (90.59%), patient related information (50.37%) and drug related information (49.39%). While the action related information (0.57%) was harmless. The most common completed of error related information were causes of medication errors 775 (96.3%) and type of medication errors 770 (95.6%) followed by outcome of medication errors 764 (94.9%) and medication process stages involved 711 (88.3%). While the patient’s demographic information completed only (50%) in reports. Conclusion: Despite the medication error reporting is consider new at the public hospital, the number of reporting was high. The system needs more determination to follow completeness medication errors reporting system and that by development of an electronic reporting system, program awareness and positive documentation system feedback changes in pharmacy practice.