Evaluation of Medication Errors and Prevention Strategies in a Selected Tertiary Care Hospital

Abstract

A medication error is defined as a deviation from the physician’s medication order as written on the patient’s chart. Evaluation of medication errors and the implementation of prevention strategies are necessary to ensure patient safety and improve healthcare outcomes. Prospective and observational study was conducted on 218 patients, 50 (22.9%) reported medication error with 56% females and 44% males. Most of the patients included in the study were in the age group between 18 to 65 years (72%). The most common co-morbidity in patients was hypertension (27.94%). In the study, the most common category of harm is Category D (35.29%), followed by Category A (19.6%), Category F (17.64%), Category E (9.8%), Category B (7.84%), Category C (5.88%), and the least common category of harm was Category I (3.92%) based on NCC MERP guidelines. The most specific reported error was wrong dose either strength or frequency (25.84%). Prescription error 34(68%) was the most common type of error reported based on CHCF guidelines. Comparing the wards in which errors were made, (42%) occurred in the female ward. Categorizing the severity of the effect of error found, 38% patient needs monitoring, 20% patient were not harmed, 18% patients required more hospitalization time, 10% patient required treatment, 10% of the patients were not affected, and 4% of the patient died. After implementing the prevention strategies, prescription errors were prevented but other errors (Dose omission, Multi-dose) were reduced from 20% to 10%.