Abstract

THE ECONOMIC OUTCOMES OF THE MEDICATION SAFETY OFFICER IN THE CARDIOLOGY SPECIALTY

Nermeen Nabeel Abuelsoud*

ABSTRACT

Introduction: no studies highlighted the economic outcomes of the medication safety officer position in cardiology specialty in the Middle East hospitals. Objective: to determine the economic outcomes of the medication safety officer position in the cardiology specialty. Materials and methods: This is a prospective observational study with descriptive analysis conducted at a Cardiology center in Saudi Arabia. During the study period each new order was reviewed by the medication safety officer to detect the appropriate drug selection, appropriate dose and dosing frequency. A cost analysis was done to determining the money saved after medication safety officer interventions through calculating the sum of the fixed costs (costs of saved drugs after preventing medication errors) and costs of other variables (costs of saved staff time and syringes and/ or IV sets after preventing medication errors). Results: This study was conducted on a total of 100 medical files. The medication safety officer interventions succeeded in preventing medication errors in 4 categories: avoidance of therapeutic duplication, avoidance of inappropriate drug selection, avoidance of overdoses and errors of drug administration with increased frequency. The overall estimated annual savings of the fixed (drugs) and variable costs after implementation of medication safety officer position was 551, 300 SR ($ 147,013). Conclusion: Initiation of medication safety officer position was very successful in preventing many medication errors in cardiac specialty. This great impact in the economic outcomes, should encourage initiation of such services in other medical specialties in the Middle Eastern countries.

Keywords: Economic outcomes, Cardiology specialty, Medication safety officer, medication errors.