Abstract

MEDICATION ERRORS: IDENTIFICATION, PREVENTION AND IMPLEMENTATION OF SAFE MEDICATION PRACTICE IN A TERTIARY CARE TEACHING HOSPITAL.

*Purushothama Reddy. K and Mallesh Mandha

ABSTRACT

Medication errors (MEs) are any preventable events that may lead to inappropriate medication use or patient harm while the medication is in the control of healthcare professional. MEs are serious problems in the health care and can be a source of morbidity and mortality. A Prospective observational study was conducted for the period of 6 months from November 2012 to April 2013 at Rajiv Gandhi Institute of Medical Sciences (RIMS), a tertiary care teaching hospital, Kadapa. To detect, evaluate, document the incidence, types & severity of MEs & to understand the causes that lead to MEs and to ensure the safe use of medication by promoting awareness on MEs. Patient selection was random and followed by recording patient medication profile in the patient data collection, medication error reporting and documentation forms. Out of 386 cases, 215 were identified with 256 MEs (66.32%) of which 48(22.32%) cases had only one error and the remaining 167(77.67%) had more than one error and the severity was assessed. The study revealed that the overall incidence of MEs is 66.32% but, there were no fatalities and the severity levels were also not significant. It is the role of clinical pharmacist to improve the quality of patient care by identifying, documenting and preventing the MEs. Physician, pharmacist, nursing and other health care professionals can join hands to minimize prescribing, documenting, dispensing and administrating errors for optimizing the pharmaceutical care to achieve a mission of “No Patient shall be harmed by a Medication Error”.

Keywords: Medication Errors, Safe Medication Practice, Pharmaceutical Care.