Study and Evaluation of Medication Errors in Medicine and Orthopedic Wards of a Tertiary Care Hospital

Aims: The main aim of the present study was to detect and evaluate the incidence, types, factors and severity of medication errors in the medicine and orthopedic wards of a tertiary care hospital.
Study Design: This was a prospective and observational study.
Place and Duration of Study: Department of Medicine and Orthopedic wards of Sri Adichunchanagiri Hospital and Research Centre, B.G.Nagara-571448, Karnataka, India, between June 2014 to February 2015.
Methodology: The patients who satisfied inclusion and exclusion criteria were enrolled after obtaining their consent. The required data was collected in the Case Record Form and reviewed daily from the day of admission to discharge in the posted department. Different types of medication errors was identified, documented and the severity of medication error was identified by using NCC MERP guidelines.
Results: A total of 200 inpatient cases from orthopedic ward and medicine ward were collected, 100 cases from each ward. In orthopedic ward, 40% patients were of 20-39 years age and in medicine ward, 48% patients were of 60-79 years age. A total of 136 and 103 medication errors were observed in orthopedic and medicine ward, among them 65% and 62% were prescription errors, 25% and 18% were administration errors, 6% and 12% were transcription errors and 4% and 8% were dispensing errors. The cause of medication errors were 64.7% and 62.1% were due to physicians, 31.6% and 30.1% were due to nurses and 3.7% and 7.8% were due to pharmacists in orthopedic and medicine ward. Majority of medication errors 68.4% and 62.1% were belonged to category-B severity in orthopedic and medicine ward respectively.
Conclusion: Clinical pharmacist can play a major role in preventing medication errors by early detection. Since our system lacks a well-organize detection and reporting mechanism, Hence, as the first step we must implement a system where errors are routinely detected and reported.