Decreasing medication errors in Alexandria Main University Hospital Critical Care Unit 3 using sensitization program

Abstract

ABSTRACT Introduction The occurrence of medication errors in hospital settings presents considerable public health challenges, as they significantly affect patient morbidity and mortality, especially with an increasing frequency in critical care units. Material and methods A prospective before-and-after study conducted in Critical Care Unit 3 at Alexandria Main University Hospital involved 1440 observations of medication errors in 16-bed units over three months, encompassing 181 patients using a checklist. After implementing a sensitization program, a follow-up study was conducted with 1472 observations involving 185 patients over another three months. The comprehensive study focuses on the impact of the sensitization program on medication errors and its reporting, employing a prospective before-after design. Results No statistically significant difference in mortality was observed between Control and Postintervention groups (p = 0.258). Prescription errors accounted for 52.0%, transcription errors 19.2%, dispensing errors 1.2%, preparation errors 13.9%, and administration errors 13.6% of total medication errors. In the Control group, 38.7% experienced at least one medical error, compared to 21.6% in the Postintervention group (p < 0.001). There were 396 medication errors (27.5% of observations) in the Control group versus 250 errors (17.0% of observations) in the Postintervention group (p < 0.001). Errors reporting increased from 3.8% to 30% (p < 0.001). Conclusions The non-technological sensitization program effectively reduced medication errors in our resource-limited unit and improved error reporting.