Incidences and classification of medication errors - a case study

Abstract

Background. The Medication errors (MEs) affect severely ill health or death and have a substantial financial effect on the patient and health care organization. The present study aims to detect the incidences and classify MEs and increase the patient safety medication of Super Specialty Hospital, Kolkata. Materials and Methods. The prospective observational study of patient prescriptions, transcription, indenting, dispensing, and administration were followed up daily to identify the medication errors in 400+ beds across each admitted inpatient department (IPD) patients file from June 2019 to July 2019 at a Super Specialty Hospital, Kolkata. Results. A total of 395 prescriptions were reviewed in the present study. A total of 29.36% of medication errors have been reported. In June 2019, MEs occurrence rate was 44.85%. The most common MEs were found in Transcription errors (TEs) (77.72%), followed by Administration errors (AEs) (55.44%), Prescription errors (PEs) (55.18%), Dispensing errors (DEs) (31.89%), and Indenting errors (IEs) (4.05%). In comparison, 13.87% of medication errors occurred in July 2019, four times less than in June 2019, with 28.10% in PEs, followed by TEs at 24.05%, AEs at 9.11%, DEs at 8.10% and 0% in IEs. Conclusion. This study revealed that MEs occurred from the common mistake of illegible handwriting, which causes many problems while transcribing and indenting medicine by chemists and nurses while cross-checking the patient file documentation with a medicine card. Further study is needed to determine the factors governing MEs low reporting.