Medication Errors Related to Look Alike and Sound Alike Medications: About a Moroccan City University Hospital and Community Pharmacies Experience

Abstract

Medication errors are a problem that has always threatened the well-being of patients, in our study we will highlight one of the most common causes, it is the Look Alike and Sound Alike medications that can contribute to up to 25% of all medication errors and harm about 250,000 people a year. Also causes several difficulties for health professionals, either in hospitals or in pharmacies. This is a descriptive and analytical cross-sectional study with health professionals in pharmacies and hospitals, which took place between 2022/02/22 and 2022/08/11, in the form of an anonymous questionnaire, The statistical study was carried out with the Jamovi software and Microsoft Excel. One hundred and thirty four responses were received, divided between 71 for pharmacies and 63 for hospitals, targeting services with a high workload. A percentage of 87% of participants from pharmacies confirm that they are already confronted with medicines with similarities either at the level of packaging or at the nomenclature, 71% of hospital participants also confirm it, and among all participants 58% are already facing medication errors caused by these types of drugs. Our study can confirm that the problem of Look Alike and Sound Alike drugs is as always a serious problem, which needs more vigilance at the different levels of drug use, there are also international recommendations issued to minimize the risk of these medications.