Systematic analysis of drug dispensing errors and preventive measures in outpatient pharmacies / 药学实践杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective To understand the current situation of dispensing errors and effective prevention and control measures in outpatient pharmacies in domestic hospitals, in order to further improve the quality of drug dispensing. Methods The Chinese journal database was retrieved from 2015 to 2020 for the literature on the dispensing errors of outpatient pharmacies and the continuous improvement of the quality after the measures were taken in secondary and tertiary hospitals. Results Of the 146 literatures retrieved, 13 were included in the analysis (11 in tertiary hospitals and 2 in secondary hospitals). Before the improvement, the median of the drug dispensing error rate was 5.1‰, and after the improvement it was 1.1‰. Before and after the improvement, the types of drug dispensing errors were mainly quantity errors (52.5% vs. 51.3%), variety errors (28.3% vs. 28.7%), specifications and dosage forms errors (6.2% vs. 6.7%), and labeling errors (2.1% vs. 2.9%). The improvement measures taken for the reasons of dispensing errors have a high overlap rate, and they are concentrated in two aspects personnel factors and drug factors. Conclusion The use of continuous quality improvement tools in hospital outpatient pharmacy to control and prevent dispensing errors is still a hotspot of current research. The composition of the types of errors after improvement has basically not changed. The implemen-tation of standardized operating procedures and other continuous improvement comprehensive measures can effectively reduce the incidence of dispensing errors, and contribute to the implementation of the “Expert Consensus on Medication Error Management in China”.