Analysis of 520 medication errors of traditional Chinese medicine in elderly patients

Abstract

Objective To understand the characteristics of medication errors (ME) of traditional Chinese medicine in elderly patients Methods ME reports of traditional Chinese medicine in elderly patients which were collected from International Network for the Rational Use of Drugs (INRUD) from January 1st, 2013 to November 31st, 2014 were selected and analyzed. The major types of ME, persons who triggered the ME, triggering factor, category, and persons who detected the ME were analyzed descriptively. Results A total of 520 ME reports were collected from 23 hospitals. The number of ME on medication usage and dosage in ME types ranked first and accounted for 48.5% (252/520), the number of deployment errors ranked second and accounted for 19.8% (103/520). In terms of the persons triggering the ME, the percentage of physicians and pharmacists were 70.0% (333/476) and 29.4% (140/476), respectively. Triggering factors of ME were lack of knowledge of traditional Chinese medicine [30.0% (114/380)] and similar names of different drugs [16.3% (62/380)]. Intermediate and primary titles of pharmacists in persons who detected ME accounted for 53.2% (271/509) and 37.5% (191/509), respectively. The ME belonging to category A, B, and C accounted for 16.0% (83/520), 68.5% (356/520), and 13.8% (72/520)], respectively and all these errors did not do harm to patients. The errors belonging to category D and E accounted for 1.5% (8/520) and 0.2% (1/520), respectively. Conclusions In elderly patients, the errors in usage and dosage of traditional Chinese medicine were main types of errors and most of the ME were mild and did not do harm to patients. The triggering factor of the ME were lack of knowledge of traditional Chinese medicines in physicians and pharmacists. Key words: aged; Drugs, Chinese herbal; Medication errors