A PROSPECTIVE STUDY TO EVALUATE AND ANALYZE MEDICATION ERRORS IN A TERTIARY CARE HOSPITAL

Abstract

The aim of the present study was to identify the medication errors, to classify and analyze it according to NCCMERP index and PCNE categorization and to elucidate the need for constant monitoring for medication errors in the tertiary are hospital setting. AMethodology: prospective observational study was conducted in the inpatients of a tertiary care hospital over a period of 1 year from January 2021 to December 2021. Out of 2968 prescriptions and 1200 cases audited, 206 medication errors were observed. Majority of errors was observed in malesResults: than in females. Prescription errors(28.64%) most frequently occurred error followed by transcription errors (27.66%). Drug-drug interactions(16.94%) and drug-food interactions (6.77%) were also detected. 7.76% of administration errors were identied along with 19.90% of documentation errors, 5.33% of dispensing errors, 18 (8.73%) of omission errors . The frequency of indenting errors was negligible (2.91%). According to NCCMERP classication of medication errors, the error severity distribution was: no error (46.60%); error, no harm (50.01%); error, harm (3.39%), error, death (0%). Conclusion: The ndings of this study concludes that prescription errors were identied as most frequently occurring medication errors with incorrect drug selection, dose related errors and drug-drug interactions being more prevalent. Majority of the errors found belongs to the Category C. The study highlights the importance of constant review of les in order to identify medication errors.