Associated factors and evaluation of interventional medication errors among inpatients in a hospital setting in Vietnam

This study aimed to determine factors associated with medication errors, and evaluate the results of interventions to reduce medication errors in inpatients treatment at Hoan My Minh Hai General Hospital, Vietnam. Methods: A single-blind, before-and-after and interventional study was conducted on 442 medical records of inpatients in the pre-intervention stage and 442 medical records of inpatients in the post-intervention stage at the Department of Pediatrics, Department of General Internal Medicine, Department of Cardiology - Endocrinology, Department of Surgery, Department of Obstetrics of Hoan My Minh Hai General Hospital from July 1, 2021, to March 31, 2022. Data were collected and processed using Excel 2016 and SPSS 26.0 software. Results: The medication errors rate decreased from 7.70% in the pre-intervention stage to 5.70% in the post-intervention stage, the difference was statistically significant (p<0.001). Medication errors before intervention occurred most often in the preparation and implementation stage (2.04%), after the intervention, the rate decreased to 1.81%. The replication stage had a high rate of medication errors (2.04%), after the intervention it decreased to 1.81%. The most common medication errors before intervention were wrong doses and wrong drugs (1.58%), after intervention, wrong dose errors rate decreased to 1.36%, the rate of wrong drug errors rate decreased to 1.13%. The total number of diseases ≥2 was significantly related to the occurrence of medication errors (p<0.05). Conclusion: Medication errors could occur at different stages of medication use processes. Pharmacist interventions appear to decrease the incidence of medication errors. (AU)

Development of a Scalable Process of Film-Coated bi-Layer Tablet Containing Sustained-Release Metoprolol Succinate and Immediate-Release Amlodipine Besylate.

The development of new drugs that combine active ingredients for the treatment hypertension is critically essential owing to its offering advantages for both patients and manufacturers. In this study, for the first time, detailed development of a scalable process of film-coated bi-layer tablets containing sustained-release metoprolol succinate and immediate-release amlodipine besylate in a batch size of 10,000 tablets is reported. The processing parameters of the manufacturing process during dry mixing-, drying-, dry mixing- completion stages were systematically investigated, and the evaluation of the film-coated bi-layer tablet properties was well established. The optimal preparation conditions for metoprolol succinate layer were 6 min- dry mixing with a high-speed mixer (120 rpm and 1400 rpm), 30-min drying with a fluid bed dryer, and 5-min- mixing completion at 25 rpm. For the preparation of amlodipine besylate layer, the optimal dry-mixing time using a cube mixer (25 rpm) was found to be 5 min. The average weight of metoprolol succinate layers and bi-layer tablets were controlled at 240-260 mg and 384-416 mg, respectively. Shewhart R chart and X¯ charts of all three sampling lots were satisfactory, confirming that the present scalable process was stable and successful. This study confirms that the manufacturing process is reproducible, robust; and it yields a consistent product that meets specifications.