31Dec 2016

PREVALENCE AND TYPES OF MEDICATION ERRORS AT KING ABDULLAH SPECIALIZED CHILDREN HOSPITAL, RIYADH, SAUDI ARABIA.

  • College of Medicine, King Saud Bin Abdulaziz University for Health Sciences, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
  • College of Pharmacy, King Saud Bin Abdulaziz University for Health Sciences, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
  • Department of Medical Education, College of Medicine, King Saud Bin Abdulaziz University for Health Sciences, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
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Introduction: Medication error is a serious medical concern defying the purpose of providing healthcare by causing harm and damage to the patient. The literature about medication errors in Saudi Arabia is lacking. The objective of this study is to estimate the prevalence of medication errors reported and identify their types, as well as to investigate the common factors contributing to their occurrence. Methods: A chart-review study on all medication orders between April 2015 and January 2016 in King Abdullah Specialized Children Hospital (KASCH). Medication errors were categorized based on type of medication, location, specific event type, process stage at which the error has occurred and the contributing factors. Categorical variables were described as absolute frequencies and percentages. Multi-variant and Chi-square test were used to assess the relationship between certain variables. Results: Of the 256,567 medication orders that were documented,792 (0.31%) medication errors were reported.Patients between one and five years of age presented 207 (30%) cases. Majority of errors occurred in hospital wards 319 (40%), and pharmacy 167 (21%). Antibiotics 169 (22%), analgesic 75 (8%), and antineoplastic agents75 (8%) were the most commonly involved medication. One-hundred sixty-five (21%) of the medication error reports involved high alert drugs. Of the medication error event types, dose-related errors were the most prevalent with 229 (29%) report. The majority of medication errors occurred during the prescribing/ordering stage with367 (46%) report. Lack of quality control dominated the contributing factors to medication errors with 595(75%) of incidents. Conclusion: The rate of medication error reported in KASCH is lower than local and international rates. The implementation of Health Information System had a role in such low rate of medication error. Utilizing data in our study can further decrease medication error rate.

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[Saleh I. Alomary, Faris K. Alasmari, Mohammad F. Aljarallah, Hind Almodaimegh, Lama A. Alluhidan and Emad Maswadi (2016); PREVALENCE AND TYPES OF MEDICATION ERRORS AT KING ABDULLAH SPECIALIZED CHILDREN HOSPITAL, RIYADH, SAUDI ARABIA. Int. J. of Adv. Res. 4 (Dec). 1670-1678] (ISSN 2320-5407). www.journalijar.com

Saleh I. Alomary
College of Medicine, King Saud Bin Abdulaziz University for Health Sciences, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

DOI:

Article DOI: 10.21474/IJAR01/2569      
DOI URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.21474/IJAR01/2569

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