Abstract

EVALUATION OF MEDICATION ERRORS THROUGH MONITORING OF MEDICATION ORDERS

Siddhi Jain, Yogesh Joshi*

Department of Pharmaceutical Science, Shri Guru Ram Rai Institute of Technology & Science, Shri Guru Ram Rai University, Dehradun-248001, Uttarakhand, India.

ABSTRACT

Medication errors can occur during prescribing, transcribing, dispensing, administering and monitoring drugs. The present study was aimed to evaluate the various types of errors through monitoring of medication orders. This was a prospective observational study carried out at various hospitals and clinics through monitoring of 120 medications orders. All the informations collected from medication orders as well as from patients was screened for assessment of medication errors. Among 120 medication orders 45.8% belongs to male patients and 54.2% female patients. Medication errors occurred in 36 patient’s prescriptions and female patients outnumber the male patients by having 20 (55.6%) errors. The age wise distribution of patients showed that most of the patients were in the age group > 61 years. Out of 36 numbers of patients with medication errors, a total of 48 numbers of medication errors was found. Omission error was the most frequently observed medication errors in 68.5%. Among 120 patients, Hypertension was found to be most commonly occurring condition reported in 22.2% patients with medication errors. Majority of errors identified in this study reached the patients but did not cause any harm. So as to minimize the medication errors, it will be necessary to conduct awareness and education programs for all health care providers especially nursing staff regarding detection and reporting of medication errors. Appropriate team work from all health care professionals can certainly reduce the incidence of medication errors.

Keywords: Medication errors, medication orders, patients, prescriptions.